Don't forget the other part - being non-anonymous online makes it easy for stalkers and other bad actors to take it to the extreme. We need anonymity for lots of reasons.
I have ... interesting ... friends. I'll bet I know scarier people IRL, than I'll find online.
Also, what impressed me about the Disqus incident, was how fast it came back with that list.
In the US, at least, true anonymity takes a lot of work. For example, if you own a house, people can use tax records to find out who you are, unless you do what rich people do, and use shell companies. I also own a couple of [small] companies. I maintain a UPS box, because they get a lot of junk mail (and some business junk mail comes to my home address, anyway).
That's just one of hundreds of ways we can be found. Many predate teh Internets Tubes. My mailbox gets stuffed with junk mail. Some of it is quite specific. They use these mechanisms, and have been, for decades. I have known folks in the collections industry. They can find people surprisingly easily. There was one guy who used to be a skip tracer, and he wrote a book called How to Disappear[0]. It's a fairly sobering read (and probably quaintly anachronistic, these days).
The Unabomber actually did it correctly. He only got nailed, once he posted something publicly.
Also just because there is a law doesn't mean there are consequences codified, and this is most true regarding states laws that “require” an LLC registered in their state. Remember that states are in competition for business, there are hurdles for them to do annoying things. The best example I’ve seen in one state is that a local LLC branch is required after your foreign LLC gets sued, and the limited liability is active and retroactively applied at that point in time. But hey maybe your anonymous LLC deters people from suing to begin with.
(This is different than there being a law codified and not being enforced)
"Anonymous" LLCs are going away. FinCEN will be requiring reporting of everybody with ownership greater than 25% starting in probably 1-2 years from now. The fucking feds won't let us have anything without stalking our every move.
