Idiolect-based Identity Disclosure and Authorship Attribution in Web-based Social Spaces

In this paper, we inspect new possible methods of Web surveillance combining web mining with sociolinguistic and semiotic related knowledge of human discourse. We first give an overview of telecommunication surveillance methods and systems, with focus on the Internet, and we describe the legal issues involved in Web or Internet communications investigations. We put the emphasis on identity disclosure and anonymity or pseudonymity undermining in open web spaces. Further, we give an overview of new trends in Internet mediated communication, and examine the virtual social networks they create. Finally, we present the results of a new method using the semiotic features of web documents for authorship attribution and identity disclosure.