Staying anonymous with connected accounts

Question

Say I want to join and discuss sensitive topics on e.g https://law.stackexchange.com/ and still stay completely anonymous. Wouldn't this be impossible if anyone could see my other accounts on other SE sites. Where I might tell more about my self, where I work and so on?

Is it possible to hide your other accounts on your Stack Exchange account page? Should it be possible or even the default option?

I understand the idea of having your accounts on SO and Meta connected. But what is the main reason of having every one of your SE accounts connected?

Answer 1

If you create an account on site B with the same OpenID/e-mail as you used for site A then the accounts will be linked.

If you wish to participate on some sites anonymously then either do so unregistered (not really a good idea) or create an account with a different OpenID/e-mail.

As long as you don't use that 2^nd identity on site A for nefarious purposes you'll be fine.

Answer 2

These days, you can sorta kinda kludge together something that works for this, using the feature to Hide Communities. If you create a linked account on the site, then promptly hide it and change the username there, regular users will have very little chance to connect it with you other than by comparing writing styles or similar, as there's no direct link to or from your network profile. (♦ mods can still look into connections, of course.)

Unfortunately, there are still some unfortunate leaks around the edges: there are still links to your network profile in weird spots; top posts in your network profile can link to your posts on a hidden site; and there are probably a few other glitches. So this isn't exactly something you want to rely on heavily.