Anonymity and Its Limits

Promising a subject anonymity protects them from consequences they might otherwise face for speaking candidly, but that promise carries real obligations: careful removal of identifying details that go beyond simply omitting a name, since context alone can sometimes reveal who a subject actually is. Careful drafting can still fail if the surrounding detail alone gives the subject away.

Anonymity also has practical limits worth being honest about upfront: a sufficiently small or specific community may make a subject identifiable regardless of precautions taken, and an ethical interviewer explains this limitation clearly rather than offering a guarantee that cannot genuinely be kept. A promise that cannot genuinely be kept should never be offered in the first place.

Where anonymity is granted, honouring it consistently across every version of a piece, including any later republication or reference, matters just as much as the original promise made directly to the subject at the time. That consistency matters as much as the original promise made directly to the subject.