Pseudonyms

I HAVE at least five pseudonyms so when I read that some  European governments want to prevent me from keeping my identities separate by different aliases, I started to wonder why they would want to stop people from taking on names to fit specific purposes. The New York Times reports on a piece of European legislation "to require companies to keep detailed data about people’s Internet and phone use that goes beyond what the countries will be required to do under a European Union directive. In Germany, a proposal from the Ministry of Justice would essentially prohibit using false information to create an e-mail account, making the standard Internet practice of creating accounts with pseudonyms illegal. A draft law in the Netherlands would likewise go further than the European Union requires, in this case by requiring phone companies to save records of a caller’s precise location during an entire mobile phone conversation."

If this kind of legislation is to be successful, it will be illegal to hold an email account in the States. I think it's a toothless exercise of people unfamiliar with the need for aliases in the virtual world.

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Victoria Shannon -- "Europe’s Plan to Track Phone and Net Use"
John Naughton -- "Europe has plans for your privacy" 

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