GEN1401 Fundamentally, all the ethical questions of the Internet have parallels in the ordinary “bricks and mortar” world. Yet … one characteristic emerges as the special ethical challenge of the Internet: anonymity. The highest level of human interaction is the face-to-face encounter, and when this degree of rapport is created, the sense of empathy and the ethical motivation are highest. When we look into the face of a fellow human being, we sense the common human element we share and recognize ourselves, as if looking in the mirror. “As the reflection in the water is to the face, so is the heart of man to man.” Proverbs 27:19   Empathy opens our hearts and makes them as one. As the Torah tells us, Esau was determined to take vengeance on Jacob, but he relented when the anonymous meeting of armed camps turned into a face-to-face meeting of the twin brothers; at that moment Esau ran toward his brother and hugged and kissed him [this verse]. Similarly, Joseph was unable to keep up his carefully planned act of haughty aloofness with his brothers after several face-to-face meetings; his emotions overcame him and he revealed himself to them. Genesis 45:1-2   As the individual element of communication is diminished, so is this psychic connection between individuals. This idea has entered common discourse in the expression a “bare-faced lie.” The highest level of insolence is to lie to someone to their face; when their face is hidden, our ethical scruples tend to be diminished. Once other people become depersonalized in our minds, we lose sight of our ethical obligations to them. In a face-to-face encounter, we actually see the person; if we walk from room to room, we at least hear their voice. A telephone conversation is held over a distance, but at any rate we hear the voice’s reproduction in real time; even a letter bears the sender’s personal imprint through his or her unique handwriting. In traditional communication, “the medium is the message”-the tokens of individuality are an inherent part of the encounter. But the Internet strips our communication of all personal embellishments apart from the actual words of the sender. The factors of distance and anonymity increase the opportunity as well as the temptation for deceit. This anonymity plays some role in all of the Internet [ethical] questions.   [One issue] pertain[s] to using false identities, which is much easier in the chat rooms of cyberspace than in the physical world. Another relates to sending copies of emails without obtaining the permission of their authors and primary recipients or informing them that there are now many other readers peeking into the correspondence—a further exploitation of the Internet’s potential for creating anonymity. Others pertain to the great anonymous ease with which we can copy material protected by copyright or snoop on our employees. The key is to remember that there is a real, live human being at the other end of the connection, a person with feelings and rights. We need to be sensitive to the feelings and expectations of other chat room members, of e-mail recipients, of artists, and of employees.   The ultimate face-to-face encounter is with the Creator. Judaism’s sources on ethics tell us that when we live up to the ethical challenges we face, we can, in a certain sense, “look God in the face” without being ashamed of our behavior. The prophet Isaiah tells us that at the time of the future redemption, when all our human relations will be repaired, we will see God “eye to eye.” Isaiah 52:8.  If we conduct ourselves in the anonymity of cyberspace just as we would in a personal encounter with a fellow human being, then we will be worthy of the Divine glance God’s special providence.  MEIR 211-2