A Is for Anonymous
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 February 2014
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The wish to be anonymous in our dealings with private companies or governments, in commenting on the news or in daily life seems to be increasing.
For some, anonymity is an ironic response to the cult of celebrity that usually preoccupies us. For others, being anonymous enables us to reject the endless celebration of the individual that characterises our times and instead to find comfort and ease in the unidentifiable mass.
Frances Stonor Saunders examines if the desire for being unknown - whether by the NHS or your search engine - is set to be the new trend of our times.
She explores with those who use the cloak of anonymity - including whistleblowers, authors and medical practitioners - the benefits which concealing your identity can confer. But she also considers the dangers of not being identifiable and how these pitfalls may affect the rest of society.
Producer Simon Coates.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | Thank you for downloading this edition of Analysis from the BBC. |
| 0:40.0 | I'm Francis Stoner Saunders and in this programme I'm discovering if too much anonymity is bad for us. |
| 0:47.6 | First of all the police were pelted with flares and thunder flashes and then Molotov cocktails. A bus has been satellite. |
| 0:55.0 | Other vehicles have also been... |
| 0:57.0 | Last month, the Ukrainian parliament passed a raft of anti-protest laws that included a ban on wearing face masks. |
| 1:04.4 | Now they ban us from wearing helmets, they ban us from covering faces, they ban us from |
| 1:11.6 | holding rallies in Kiev. This is nothing but a dictatorship. This |
| 1:15.6 | is a policed state. After 12 days of running clashes between demonstrators and police, the |
| 1:21.2 | legislation was finally repealed. |
| 1:24.0 | Masking expresses the wish for anonymity in the public sphere. |
| 1:28.0 | It's always been an important feature of protest. |
| 1:31.0 | But recently, in a global development promoted on the internet and social media, more |
| 1:36.4 | and more demonstrators have taken to concealing themselves behind a single stylised image, that of the Guy Fawkes mask. This mask with its grotesquely |
| 1:46.8 | wide grin is both playful and spooky. It's the face of anonymity. |
| 1:53.0 | Meanwhile in virtual reality, it's now possible to create an anonymous identity for |
| 1:58.0 | yourself and to animate and distribute that fiction with incredible speed. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.