Upload government papers to go online? That may be our new terrifying future | Aliya Bhatia | The Guardian

"Due to a data breach, one journalist was able to link a user’s post on an anonymous discussion board to their driver’s license in 10 minutes. And it is only a matter of time before governments begin requesting users’ identifying age-related data from platforms as it is already doing with other forms of data in an attempt to target critics. Anonymity is critical online... to reduce stigma, to shield a user’s search related to their sexual preferences or healthcare conditions ... to guard users from retaliation for their views".

The implications as set out here range from women seeking healthcare to satirists and artists: "This is not the time to hand over more data about ourselves to tech actors... [the largest and richest] have already shown their tendency to comply with overbroad and opaque government requests... [and] have been unreliable brokers of our personal data, especially minors’ data, often selling it to the highest bidder for profit."