Perri Nelson's Website 

On the Internet nobody knows you're a dog

That's how the old joke goes. Once long ago there was a cartoon with that for a caption.

Some people think that the Internet gives them anonymity. But it doesn't. Everywhere you go on the Internet you leave a trail.

In order for two computers to communicate, they have to be able to establish a connection. On the Internet, that means sharing an IP address with each other, even if it's for a brief period of time.

There are services that help to make you more anonymous, by pooling IP addresses and relaying traffic, but most people don't use them. Anybody that sees my site offer a weather forecast in the sidebar has been here before, and I know where your ISP lives, not that I ever intend to do anything else with that information.

The point is, that you're almost never really anonymous on the Internet. But, it sure seems that way to a lot of people. So some dogs pretend they're people. And when they do, sometimes people get hurt. From the Seattle Post Intelligencer: [UPDATE - I mistyped the original link. I've now corrected it.]

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- He was an 18-year-old Marine headed to war.

She was an attractive young woman sending him off with pictures and lingerie.

Or so each one thought.

In reality, they were two middle-aged people carrying on an Internet fantasy based on seemingly harmless lies.

When a truthful 22-year-old was drawn in, authorities say, their cyber escape turned deadly.

"When you're on the Internet talking, you haven't got a clue who that is on the other end," Erie County Sheriff's Lt. Ron Kenyon said. "You don't have a clue."

When Brian Barrett was shot to death Sept. 15 outside the factory where he worked to help pay for college, investigators and his family were stumped.

You know where this is going don't you? For the rest of the details, go read the article. It's a pretty frightening story about what can happen when fantasies and lies affect real people.

Harmless lies? I don't think so. There was a lot of harm done here. Brian Barrett is dead and three families lives have been disrupted in a bad way. The alleged murderer's family has to deal with what he appears to have done. So does the woman's family. Not to mention Brian Barretts family.

On the Internet nobody knows you're a dog. But they just might get bitten by your fleas.

Trackposted to Big Dog's Weblog, stikNstein... has no mercy, basil's blog, Shadowscope, DragonLady's World, Pirate's Cove, The Bullwinkle Blog, Conservative Cat, High Desert Wanderer, Pursuing Holiness, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Bruce the Human Pet responded with:

Ick.

The Seattle link is offline, but you can find the same story at

 http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20070122-0000-deadlytriangle.html

hdw responded with:

You story link is broken.

Perri Nelson responded with:

It seems that you're right. The original link is broken. It was good when I posted though. I'll update with the new link.

David responded with:

Well, sure you can get my IP address, cos I don't normally mask that (anonymizer services aren't the only way to go :-)), and I have presences and email addresses associated with my own name all over the web, making it pretty easy for someone that's relatively determined to track me down... sorta. My IP address is more than 50 miles from my location, several counties away, and my address is still not even on the new 911 maps. So, it'd take interviewing folks who know me and know where I live to actually track me down. That sort of thing could've been a problem eight years ago when my Wonder Woman's heart stopped and I was stuck doing CPR while the kids hailed some help, except that a friend who's a cop was on duty that morning, heard the call and led the ambulance to our home. Of course, he knew where we live cos he'd helped us move in... :-) Helps to have friends in law enforcement. But yeh, tracks and traces... Had a guy a year ago who thought he'd tracked me down (he was 35 miles off base) and threatened to come by and clean my clock for me, cos he didn't like some things I said in my blogposts (a weenie leftard). I sent him satellite pics of his house and workplace, and he shut up.

Perri Nelson responded with:

Well, that's sort of why I said I know where your ISP lives. I don't really want to know much more than that about you anyway, except what you are willing to share via comments and on your own blog.

Your weenie leftard nut is just the type of people I was talking about though. Find one of them with real intelligence and there could be trouble. I'm glad that this one was so easilly dissuaded.