For the first time, said data-mining expert Benjamin Fung, analysts have used the complex algorithms and almost imperceptible human quirks that make up the concept of "frequent pattern" to work out each person's unique email fingerprint or "write-print."

However, there may exist an alternative method for "unmasking" anonymous bloggers, cyber-stalkers, etc. using public information. Everyone has a unique writeprint (basically a written fingerprint that can be used to identify him or her). This technique s has traditionally been used to identify the true author of a text (e.g. a book) where authorship is disputed or unknown. Forensics linguistics has been used to provide evidence in trademark disputes cases, identifying the author of anonymous texts (such as threat or harassment letters), and identifying cases of plagiarism.

Unlike conventional crimes, there are no fingerprints to be found in cybercrime. Fortunately, there is another type of print, which we call "writeprint," hidden in people’s writings. Similar to fingerprints, writeprint is composed of multiple features, such as vocabulary richness, length of sentence, use of function words, layout of paragraphs, and key words.