For decades, the implicit bargain of the internet has been that pseudonymity — posting under a screen name, browsing behind a VPN, compartmentalizing identities across platforms — offered a reasonable shield against identification. That assumption is now under direct threat. A recent technical analysis by AI safety researcher Simon Lermen lays out in granular detail how current artificial intelligence capabilities, combined with the vast commercial data broker industry, could enable the large-scale deanonymization of online users at costs that are startlingly low. The implications extend far beyond academic concern. Journalists protecting sources, political dissidents operating under authoritarian regimes, whistleblowers, domestic abuse survivors, and ordinary citizens who simply prefer not to have their Reddit posts linked to their real names all face a new calculus of risk.…