Can anonymous reports be tracked?

Can you send anonymous messages to the police?

In the United States, you can.

You can also take the Fifth Amendment, refuse to testify in court, and claim your privilege against self-incrimination (Fifth Amendment). However, there is a problem with claiming your privilege against self-incrimination: you don't actually have it. The Fifth Amendment protects against self-incrimination when testifying in a criminal court. However, you can be compelled to testify in other types of cases, including civil suits.

Note that you don't have to invoke the Fifth Amendment at all, you can just refuse to answer any question and never testify. But this usually leads to some very embarrassing results. For instance, your bank records are subpoenaed and you get accused of money laundering.

If you want to remain anonymous, you will need to go outside the US and ask a lawyer about your options. The specific rules will depend on the country you are in.

Is anonymous reporting really anonymous?

When the news broke that the government was trying to force a change to the UK's Freedom of Information (FoI) Act, the government and its allies in the media immediately began pushing an agenda that had already been set out by the Conservative Party in its election manifesto: that citizens have no right to know what their government is doing. The right to know what our government does is a cornerstone of democracy - and the right to know what information has been received from public bodies is a cornerstone of open government. These principles have long been protected by FoI laws, which are not just good for citizens but also good for public bodies themselves. The Tories' stated intention is to introduce a raft of amendments to the current law to prevent FOI requests being accepted or responses being provided, to make it easier to evade FOI requests and to increase the amount of time for which organisations can withhold information. Yet the proposals, drafted by the Conservative Party, are a cynical attempt to introduce changes that are not designed to help citizens but to help the Tories avoid scrutiny - something they are loathe to do in the light of their general election defeat. As more people come to see through the Tories' duplicity, a growing number are also coming to realise that the right to know argument they are peddling is not only empty, it's false. We don't know how many of the 647,300 requests for information from the government this year would have been answered if the proposed changes hadn't been introduced. And we don't know what effect it will have on the number of organisations that actually provide information under the current act.

But it is certain that for the majority of requests, the answer would be no. Because as currently drafted, the government's proposed changes would not apply to the most important requests from ordinary citizens.

Can anonymous reports be tracked?

Anonymous reports are reported by an ID that is not tied to the author, but the report itself is still associated with the author.

You can use your ID to track reports from one or multiple accounts.

How do I report a member? When you're in the lobby, look for a small message board at the top of the screen. Click on the green "Report User" button.

How do I remove a report? Click on the green "Remove Report" button. How can I report someone for being abusive? In the lobby, click on the blue "Report User" button in the upper-right corner. In the "Select Abuse Type" box, choose "Abuse" and select your reason.

What is the difference between the "Abuse" and "Other" report types? The Abuse report is automatically placed in the Abusive section of the forum, while other reports will be reviewed by moderators and staff before they are moved to the Abusive section. What is the difference between the "Abusive" and "Other" report types? The Abusive report is automatically placed in the Abusive section of the forum, while other reports will be reviewed by moderators and staff before they are moved to the Abusive section.

Can an anonymous letter be traced?

This question arose when I asked about the use of anonymous in the anonymous letter.

The New York Times reported a letter sent to the editor that claimed the paper had been censoring stories concerning a local Republican state representative, David S. Steiner (D-Rockland). One paragraph of the letter said We understand that Steiner is considering retirement and hope he will not pursue re-election, and a follow-up paragraph stated, It's unclear what was in the letter.

The question was raised one of my radio shows, but I received no responses from people who said they had called the newspaper. So I tried to track down the actual letter. After all, it's one thing to write It's unclear what was in the letter, and another thing to write We understand . If there is an actual letter, that might give us some ideas as to how that can be determined. There were many possibilities: the Times might have a record of the exact letter; the Times might call up the publisher and ask; the Times might contact the sender and say, How did you do this? If we get an actual reply from the sender, we'll be able to try to find out how the letter was constructed.

My first thought was the Times might publish the names of any donors to the newspaper. I called the Times' advertising and circulation department, to find out whether they had this information, but they told me the Times does not disclose the names of anonymous donors. However, they did say that if you go into the store where they sell advertisements (a newspaper-sponsored business), they may give the name of the donor if the donor has not opted out. So I called up the ad department again, and they referred me to their general counsel. They said that when a person writes a letter of protest against a publication, the Times receives the letter. They take it very seriously, but they said they are prohibited from revealing the writer's identity. The general counsel said that if the paper published the names of the donors, then the paper could potentially be sued for doing so. I believe the Times is covered by the First Amendment, and that the First Amendment protects people's right to write anonymous letters.