Reproduced from http://webapps.stackexchange.com/a/30605/11058

Don't give your email and portrait to Gravatar. Regardless of whether you trust Gravatar Corp, it's easy for site owners to carelessly betray the identity of users posting under pseudonyms. A cautionary tale:

Hashim in Saudi Arabia secretly reads an American blog about homosexuality. One time, the blog discusses the Middle East, so Hashim comments describing his own experience. He is careful to give a false name 'bin Elton' to protect his identity. However the blog software, Wordpress, also demands an email address. The software promises 'your email address will not be published'. Hashim trusts the blog owner and thinks nothing of typing his email address. There's no risk, his email doesn't even contain his real name.

Two years later, Hashim signs up for Stack Overflow under his real name. He gives Gravatar his email and portrait.

Unbeknownst to Hashim , in 2011 Wordpress decided to install Gravatar on their platform, to make it 'more social'. Portraits are added to new comments, but also to millions of archived comments. (Wordpress didn't consider this a privacy issue, because email addresses remain secret). As a consequence, Hashim's portrait is now publicly displayed next to bin Elton's story.

Reproduced from https://webapps.stackexchange.com/a/30605/11058

Don't give your email and portrait to Gravatar. Regardless of whether you trust Gravatar Corp, it's easy for site owners to carelessly betray the identity of users posting under pseudonyms. A cautionary tale:

Hashim in Saudi Arabia secretly reads an American blog about homosexuality. One time, the blog discusses the Middle East, so Hashim comments describing his own experience. He is careful to give a false name 'bin Elton' to protect his identity. However the blog software, Wordpress, also demands an email address. The software promises 'your email address will not be published'. Hashim trusts the blog owner and thinks nothing of typing his email address. There's no risk, his email doesn't even contain his real name.

Two years later, Hashim signs up for Stack Overflow under his real name. He gives Gravatar his email and portrait.

Unbeknownst to Hashim , in 2011 Wordpress decided to install Gravatar on their platform, to make it 'more social'. Portraits are added to new comments, but also to millions of archived comments. (Wordpress didn't consider this a privacy issue, because email addresses remain secret). As a consequence, Hashim's portrait is now publicly displayed next to bin Elton's story.