"Does it really matter if I'm not anonymous online?"
Even if you're not anonymous online, consider the following scenario:
You visit website A; your're not anonymous and that's fine for you.
You then visit website B. Again you're not anonymous and that's fine too.
Then you visit website C, followed by website D.
Again, you're not anonymous and that's fine because you know that website A doesn't know you visited website B and website B doesn't know that you visited website C.
Website C does know that you visited website D, but it doesn't know what you did once you got there. So although you're not anonymous online, you don't feel like someone is watching over your shoulder looking at everything you do.
But unknown to you (or maybe even known to you) company X has a little bit of analytics code on each of these websites and does know that you visited website A, and website B, and also website C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L and more.
So maybe it's a question of the degree to which you can be anonymous online. On individual websites, you might be fine not being anonymous, as long as those websites don't know what you're doing elsewhere on the web. But is anonymity important if you know everything you do online is being tracked and joined together from all your disparate journeys?
Even if you're not anonymous online, consider the following scenario:
You visit website A; your're not anonymous and that's fine for you.
You then visit website B. Again you're not anonymous and that's fine too.
Then you visit website C, followed by website D.
Again, you're not anonymous and that's fine because you know that website A doesn't know you visited website B and website B doesn't know that you visited website C.
Website C does know that you visited website D, but it doesn't know what you did once you got there. So although you're not anonymous online, you don't feel like someone is watching over your shoulder looking at everything you do.
But unknown to you (or maybe even known to you) company X has a little bit of analytics code on each of these websites and does know that you visited website A, and website B, and also website C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L and more.
So maybe it's a question of the degree to which you can be anonymous online. On individual websites, you might be fine not being anonymous, as long as those websites don't know what you're doing elsewhere on the web. But is anonymity important if you know everything you do online is being tracked and joined together from all your disparate journeys?