Anonymity

One of the Heinlein sci-fi novels I read once went into great detail about the heroine’s need for anonymity and how she protected herself with layer upon layer of temporary and throw-away ID. At the time (at least 20 years ago) I thought it was pretty far fetched but now I don’t know.

Of course, email anonymity has been available for years with hotmail and yahoo accounts easy and free to set-up and maintain. Avatars and aliases are expected on forums and in chat-rooms. So I was not really surprised to see that there are several services which provide anonymous proxy phone numbers. Most of them are simply inbound message numbers for someone to leave message for you but some actually can (for a fee) transfer the caller to your real number.

Two services that offer free proxy phone numbers are NetZero and Laser Voicemail. NetZero even offers you a choice of area codes in most states so that you could, for example, apply for a job in Oklahoma with an appropriate local callback number even though you live in upstate New York. You can even have the messages emailed to you to save you the trouble of calling into your "answering machine".

NetZero upgraded their service recently with two new options: a "gotta go call" and private number callback. The "gotta go call" is for those occasions when you WANT to be called in the middle of a meeting or social function. You can answer the call and with appropriate nods, grunts, and other gestures, indicate to those around you that you are so sorry but you have to attend to some important interruption. You no longer have to depend on your secretary or partner in crime to do that. Private number callback allows you to return a call with you proxy number showing in the caller ID thus keeping your real number hidden and reinforcing the idea that the proxy number is your real number. Nifty service.