The hot corporate scandal today involves the CEO of supermarket chain Whole Foods using an assumed identity on Yahoo Finance message boards to hype his own company and bash a competitor that they were looking to acquire. Unfortunately for John Mackey, using the rather cryptic alias “Rahodeb” (an anagram of his wife’s name: Deborah) was not enough to fool investigators at the Federal Trade Commission, and he is now coming under fire from both the FTC and investors in the organic foods giant.

Whether you are the CEO of a billion dollar company or just an average Internet user, remaining truly 100% anonymous online is incredibly difficult. However, here are a few basic strategies and services you can use to try and maintain your privacy, particularly in countries that seek to limit your freedoms:

Use Throw Away Email Addresses

Most online services require a valid email address in order to sign up. While you can always use an address from a web mail provider like Gmail or Hotmail, the easier and more anonymous way to keep your information private (and prevent Google and Hotmail from tracking information on you) is to use a “throw away” email address. There are a variety of different options and services available for doing so:

Mailinator – When you come across a web form requiring an email address, you can simply enter anything@mailinator.com and then go to the Mailinator web site to get your message. There is no password and thus no real privacy, but your email is automatically deleted after a few hours. Mailinator also includes an RSS feed for keeping up with your messages.

SpamBob – If you would like to receive email at your regular address but keep it private, SpamBob allows you to setup a forwarding account @spambob.com. You can activate and de-active forwarding at any time.

Spamgourmet – This service provides anonymity while giving you a little more control over who can message your masked address. With Spamgourmet, your anonymous address takes the form of “someword.x.user@spamgourmet.com” where someword is a word you have never used before, x (optional) is the number of email messages you want to receive at this address, and user is your username.

Surf the Web Anonymously

If you work for a big company, chances are you web browsing habits are being monitored by your employer, and if you’re spending too much time checking sports scores or searching HotJobs, you might receive an unwelcome visit from your boss. Beyond corporate snooping, marketer’s increasingly place cookies on your hard drive so they can monitor your preferences and serve up more relevant advertising. The best way to avoid this type of snooping is to surf anonymously, which can be achieved in several ways:

Tor – One of the most popular programs for remaining anonymous, Tor is a downloadable application that looks to protect your web browsing, instant messaging, and more. The service operates on its own “network of virtual tunnels” and claims to be used by the US Navy in addition to law enforcement around the world. Torbutton is a Firefox plugin for turning Tor on and off while you’re browsing

Use a Proxy Server – Most basic logging is done by tracking your IP address. By using a proxy server, you are essentially using a networked IP address, which makes tracking your individual location difficult. Setting up a proxy server can be done in your Web browser, and a good list of available proxies is available at Public Proxy Servers.

Use a Web-Based Proxy – If you don’t want to go through the hassle of setting your browser up to use a proxy server, there are dozens of web-based services for browsing anonymously. With these, you simply type in the URL you wish to visit and the proxy service will load the page for you, usually in a frame. These types of services are ideal for circumventing blocks that schools or employers may put on certain web sites. Kaxy and Proxify are two popular services.

Keep Your Phone Number Private

While it’s usually not a good idea to post your personal phone number on the Web, there are ways to let people call you without sharing your digits. If you’re trying to sell something on a classifieds site or want to chat with people on a dating service, you will want to provide a phone number in an anonymous way. Here are a few of the leading services and how they work:

Jangl – Operating as its own anonymous phone system, Jangl lets you enter any email address and provides you with a random phone number to call them. If they are a Jangl user, your call will be connected to them, if not, a voice message will be send to their email address and they will be given an anonymous number to call you back. Jangl also provides a widget that you can place on your blog, profiles, and anywhere else you want to allow users to call you.

Jaduka – Formerly known as PrivateTel, Jaduka offers a service called “My Private Line” that is essentially a toll-free number that forwards to your real phone line, thus keeping your number private.

Numbr – Originally targeting Craigslist users (and dubbed “craigsnumber”), Numbr provides you with a disposable phone number that last for an hour, a day, a week, or a month. Numbr offers phone numbers in most major area codes and provides you with a number and three digit extension that forwards to the phone of your choice.

Use Common Sense

Perhaps the most important part of maintaining your privacy online is using common sense. A few obvious but often ignored tactics:

1. Use a completely non-descript alias - While John Mackey was able to foil the Yahoo Message Board community for 8 years, he was eventually uncovered because of his obvious alias.

2. Use avatars, not photos – If a site requires you to have a photo, use a random image, not your yearbook picture.

3. Assume what you post will be on the front page of the NY Times – No matter what lengths you go to in order to protect privacy, someone that is truly determined can probably find you out. Thus, even if you’re under an alias, you shouldn’t post things online you wouldn’t want the world to see at some point.

Additionally, with services like Facebook and Zooomr allowing users to tag people in photos, you could end up online against your will, so try and avoid unflattering situations when cameras are present.

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In reality, if you’ve been using the Internet for any length of time, chances are you have made a digital fingerprint that is fairly permanent. However, with the increased risk of identity theft, employer’s propensity for snooping on workers, and advertisers looking to acquire as much knowledge as possible about you, protecting your identity where feasible is a prudent decision.

Are there other measures you use to protect your privacy? Feel free to add your tips for staying anonymous in the comments.