1. A method, comprising: receiving, by a router of an information-centric network, an Interest via a first interface of the router, the Interest including at least a name prefix for a requested piece of data; determining, for the Interest, a first anonymous identifier (AID) that identifies a name-independent path to the Interest's source via the router without revealing information about the source; performing, by the router, a lookup operation for the name prefix of the Interest in a name-prefix forwarding information base that maps name prefixes to interfaces toward a nearest anchor for a given name prefix; identifying a second interface for forwarding the Interest to a next-hop neighbor via the information-centric network, based on matching the name prefix of the Interest to the second interface during the lookup operation; performing a bijective function on the first AID to obtain a second AID that is to be used by the next-hop neighbor to establish a name-independent return path to the router without revealing information about the identity of the router; updating the Interest to include the second AID; and forwarding the Interest via the second interface toward the next-hop neighbor.