User Online Anonymity Awareness among Students /

Striving for privacy is a common ambition among humans, especially in the modern world. Therefore, the right to privacy is anchored in diverse rulings and judicial decisions, with the purpose of ensuring an individual's ability to keep and protect his identity, thoughts, emotions, deep secrets, way of life and intimate acts. In addition, the right to privacy makes it possible for a person to choose which parts and places in his own private world are accessible to external parties, and also to control the manner, scope and timing of such exposure (Schwartz-Altshuler, 2012). However, the rapid development of technology, the Internet in particular, has created a blurring of boundaries between the public domain and the personal domain, which challenges the current concept of privacy. It seems that the Internet has created a conflict in regard to the concept of privacy. On the one hand, it is bound to the concept of anonymity, as part of the perception that anonymity "the incapability of identifying the details of a Web user" prevents surveillance and infiltration into the individual's autonomy. On the other hand, the individual's ability to exercise his wishes in the cyberspace, depends, in many cases, on shedding his privacy and the cloak of anonymity. Anonymity is one of the unique features the Internet provides, as it presents an exclusive platform, allowing the user to shape the setting in which he operates. Inside this uniquely-shaped setting, the user holds the privilege not to expose his personal details, choose an alias or a pseudonym. In fact, this distinctive feature generates the user an environment, perceived by him as a safe locality, protecting his privacy. Yet, the cloak of anonymity provided by the Internet is not ___________________________________________________ ה הירפס עדימ ידומילל Library of Information Science רב תטיסרבינוא לארשי ,ןג תמר ,ןליא Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel 52900 .לט 972-3-5318163 Tel. Email: [email protected] Website: http://is.biu.ac.il/library absolute to say the least. The same technology enables the user to exercise his online preferences to the fullest, but at the same time allows his personal information to be collected, and in many cases without his consent (Amichai-Hamburger & Perez, 2012). Our research deals with the user's awareness to the limited online anonymity.