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Internet identity (IID), also online identity or internet persona, is a social identity that an Internet user establishes in online communities and websites. It may also be an actively constructed presentation of oneself. Although some people choose to use their real names online, some Internet users prefer to be anonymous, identifying themselves by means of pseudonyms, which reveal varying amounts of personally identifiable information. An online identity may even be determined by a user's relationship to a certain social group they are a part of online. Some can be deceptive about their identity. In some online contexts, including
Internet forum An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...
s,
online chat Online chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet that offers a real-time transmission of text messages from sender to receiver. Chat messages are generally short in order to enable other participants to respond quickly. Ther ...
s, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), users can represent themselves visually by choosing an avatar, an icon-sized graphic image. Avatars are one way users express their online identity. Through interaction with other users, an established online identity acquires a
reputation The reputation of a social entity (a person, a social group, an organization, or a place) is an opinion about that entity typically as a result of social evaluation on a set of criteria, such as behavior or performance. Reputation is a ubiquitous ...
, which enables other users to decide whether the identity is worthy of
trust Trust often refers to: * Trust (social science), confidence in or dependence on a person or quality It may also refer to: Business and law * Trust law, a body of law under which one person holds property for the benefit of another * Trust (bus ...
. Online identities are associated with users through
authentication Authentication (from ''authentikos'', "real, genuine", from αὐθέντης ''authentes'', "author") is the act of proving an assertion, such as the identity of a computer system user. In contrast with identification, the act of indicati ...
, which typically requires
registration Register or registration may refer to: Arts entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller * Registration (organ), th ...
and logging in. Some websites also use the user's
IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...
or
tracking cookies HTTP cookies (also called web cookies, Internet cookies, browser cookies, or simply cookies) are small blocks of data created by a web server while a user is browsing a website and placed on the user's computer or other device by the user's we ...
to identify users. The concept of the
self The self is an individual as the object of that individual’s own reflective consciousness. Since the ''self'' is a reference by a subject to the same subject, this reference is necessarily subjective. The sense of having a self—or ''selfhood ...
, and how this is influenced by emerging technologies, are a subject of research in fields such as
education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...
,
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
and
sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
. The
online disinhibition effect Online disinhibition effect is the lack of restraint one feels when communicating online in comparison to communicating in-person. People feel safer saying things online which they would not say in real life because they have the ability to remain ...
is a notable example, referring to a concept of unwise and uninhibited behavior on the Internet, arising as a result of anonymity and audience gratification.


Online social identity


Identity expression and identity exposure

The
social web The social web is a set of social relations that link people through the World Wide Web. The social web encompasses how websites and software are designed and developed in order to support and foster social interaction. These online social inte ...
, i.e. the usage of the web to support the social process, represents a space in which people have the possibility to express and expose their identity in a social context. For example, people define their identity explicitly by creating
user profile A user profile is a collection of settings and information associated with a user. It contains critical information that is used to identify an individual, such as their name, age, portrait photograph and individual characteristics such as ...
s in
social network services A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...
such as
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
or
LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...
and
online dating service Online dating, also known as Internet dating, Virtual dating, or Mobile app dating, is a relatively recent method used by people with a goal of searching for and interacting with potential romantic or sexual partners, via the internet. An onlin ...
s. By expressing opinions on blogs and other social media, they define more tacit identities. The disclosure of a person's identity may present certain issues related to
privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...
. Many people adopt strategies that help them control the disclosure of their personal information online. Some strategies require users to invest considerable effort. The emergence of the concept of online identity has raised many questions among academics.
Social networking service A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...
s and online
avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appeara ...
s have complicated the concept of identity. Academia has responded to these emerging trends by establishing domains of scholarly research such as
technoself Technoself studies, commonly referred to as TSS, is an emerging, interdisciplinarity domain of scholarly research dealing with all aspects of human identity in a technological societyLuppicini pp. 1–25 focusing on the changing nature of relati ...
studies, which focuses on all aspects of human identity in technological societies. Online activities may affect our offline personal identity, as well. Avi Marciano has coined the term "VirtuReal" to resolve the contested relationship between online and offline environments in relation to identity formation. Studying online usage patterns of transgender people, he suggested that the internet can be used as preliminary, complementary, and/or alternative sphere. He concludes that although "the offline world sets boundaries that potentially limit the latitude within the online world, these boundaries are wide enough to allow mediated agency that empowers transgender users. Consequently, the term VirtuReal "reflects both the fact that it provides an empowering virtual experience that compensates for offline social inferiority, and the fact that it is nevertheless subject to offline restrictions".


Concept of the mask

Dorian Wiszniewski and
Richard Coyne Richard Coyne is a professor at the University of Edinburgh and author of several books on the implications of information technology and design, published by MIT Press, Routledge, and Bloomsbury Academic. His work is strongly influenced by the ...
, in their contribution to the book ''Building Virtual Communities'', explore online identity, with emphasis on the concept of "masking" identity. They say that whenever an individual interacts in a social sphere, they portray a mask of their identity. This is no different online and becomes even more pronounced due to the decisions an online contributor makes concerning his or her online profile. He or she must answer specific questions about age,
gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...
, address,
username A user is a person who utilizes a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified to the system by a username (or user name). Other terms for username include login name, screenname (or screen name), accoun ...
and so forth. With the accrual of one's online activity, his or her mask is increasingly defined by his or her style of writing, vocabulary and topics. The kind of mask one chooses reveals something about the subject behind the mask, which might be referred to as the "
metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...
" of the mask. The online mask does not reveal the actual identity of a person; it reveals an example of what lies behind the mask. If a person chooses to act like a rock star online, this metaphor reveals an interest in rock music but may also indicate a lack of
self-esteem Self-esteem is confidence in one's own worth or abilities. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs about oneself (for example, "I am loved", "I am worthy") as well as emotional states, such as triumph, despair, pride, and shame. Smith and Mackie (2007) d ...
. A person may also choose to craft a fake identity, whether entirely fictional, already in existence, borrowed, or stolen. Because of many emotional and psychological dynamics, people can be reluctant to interact online. By evoking a mask of identity, a person can create a safety net. An anonymous or fake identity is one precaution people take so that their true identity is not stolen or abused. By making the mask available, people can interact with some degree of confidence without fear. Wiszniewski and Coyne state, "Education can be seen as the change process by which identity is realized, how one finds one's place. Education implicates the transformation of identity. Education, among other things, is a process of building up a sense of identity, generalized as a process of edification." Students interacting in an
online community An online community, also called an internet community or web community, is a community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet. Members of the community usually share common interests. For many, online communities may fe ...
must reveal something about themselves and have others respond to this contribution. In this manner, the mask is constantly being formulated in dialogue with others and thereby students will gain a richer and deeper sense of who they are. There will be a process of edification that will help students come to understand their strengths and weaknesses.


Blended identity

The blended mask perspective is likened to the concept of 'blended identity', whereby the offline-self informs the creation of a new online-self, which in turn informs the offline-self through further interaction with those the individual first met online. It means people's self-identity varies in different social or cultural contexts.


In different contexts


Blogging

As blogs allow an individual to express his or her views in individual essays or as part of a wider discussion, it creates a public forum for expressing ideas. Bloggers often choose to use pseudonyms, whether in platforms such as
WordPress WordPress (WP or WordPress.org) is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in hypertext preprocessor language and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database with supported HTTPS. Features include a plugin architecture ...
or in interest-centered blog sites, to protect personal information and allow them more editorial freedom to express ideas that might be unpopular with their family, employers, etc. Use of a pseudonym (and a judicious approach to revealing personal information) can allow a person to protect their real identities, but still build a reputation online using the assumed name.


Human resources

Digital identity management has become a necessity when applying for jobs while working for a company. Social media has been a tool for human resources for years. A KPMG report on social media in human resources say that 76 percent of American companies used LinkedIn for recruiting. The ease of search means that reputation management will become more vital especially in professional services such as lawyers, doctors and accountants.


Social networks

Online social networks like
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
and MySpace allow people to maintain an online identity with some overlap between online and real-world context. These identities are often created to reflect a specific aspect or ideal version of themselves. Representations include pictures, communications with other 'friends' and membership in network groups. Privacy control settings on social networks are also part of social networking identity. Some users may use their online identity as an extension of their physical selves, and center their profiles around realistic details. These users value continuity in their identity, and would prefer being honest with the portrayal of themselves. However, there is also a group of social network users that would argue against using a real identity online. These users have experimented with online identity, and ultimately what they have found is that it is possible to create an alternate identity through the usage of such social networks. For example, a popular blogger on medium.com writes under the name of Kel Campbell – a name that was chosen by her, not given to her. She states that when she was verbally attacked online by another user, she was able to protect herself from the sting of the insult by taking it as Kel, rather than her true self. Kel became a shield of sorts, and acted as a mask that freed the real user beneath it. Research from scientists such as
danah boyd danah boyd (stylized in lowercase, born November 24, 1977 as Danah Michele Mattas) She noted her mother added lowercase 'h' in birth name "danah" for typographical balance, reflecting the lowercase first letter 'd' and later changed her last na ...
and Knut Lundby has found that in some cultures, the ability to form an identity online is considered a sacred privilege. This is because having an online identity allows the user to accomplish things that otherwise are impossible to do in real life. These cultures believe that the self has become a subjective concept on the online spaces; by logging onto their profiles, users are essentially freed from the prison of a physical body and can "create a narrative of the self in virtual space that may be entirely new".


Online business

In the development of social networks, there has appeared a new economic phenomenon: doing business via social networks. For example, there are many users of
WeChat WeChat () is a Chinese instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world's largest standalone mobile app in 2018, with over 1 billion monthly active users. WeChat has b ...
called wei-businessmen (Wechat businessman, a new form of e-commerce in Wechat) who sell products on WeChat. Doing business via social networks is not that easy. The identities of users in social networks are not the same as that in the real world. For the sake of security, people do not tend to trust someone in social networks, in particular when it is related with money. So for wei-businessmen, reputations are very important for wei-business. Once customers decide to shop via Wechat, they prefer to choose those wei-businessmen with high reputations. They need to invest enormous efforts to gain reputations among the users of WeChat, which in turn increases the chance other users will purchase from them.


Online learning


Communication

Online identity in classrooms forces people to reevaluate their concepts of classroom environments. With the invention of online classes, classrooms have changed and no longer have the traditional face-to-face communications. These communications have been replaced by computer screen. Students are no longer defined by visual characteristics unless they make them known. There are pros and cons to each side. In a traditional classroom, students are able to visually connect with a teacher who was standing in the same room. During the class, if questions arise, clarification can be provided immediately. Students can create face-to-face connections with other students, and these connections can easily be extended beyond the classroom. For timid or socially awkward students, this ability to form and extend relationships through personal contact may hold little appeal. For these students, the appeal may reside in online courses, where computer communications allow them a greater degree of separation and anonymity. With the prevalence of remote Internet communications, students do not form preconceptions of their classmates based on the classmate's appearance or speech characteristics. Rather, impressions are formed based only on the information presented by the classmate. Some students are more comfortable with this paradigm as it avoids the discomfort of public speaking. Students who do not feel comfortable stating their ideas in class can take time to sit down and think through exactly what they wish to say. Communication via written media may lead students to take more time to think through their ideas since their words are in a more permanent setting (online) than most conversations carried on during class.


Perception of professor

Online learning situations also cause a shift in perception of the professor. Whereas anonymity may help some students achieve a greater level of comfort, professors must maintain an active identity with which students may interact. The students should feel that their professor is ready to help whenever they may need it. Although students and professors may not be able to meet in person, emails and correspondence between them should occur in a timely manner. Without this students tend to drop online classes since it seems that they are wandering through a course without anyone to guide them.


Virtual world

In the virtual world, users create a personal avatar and communicate with others through the virtual identity. The virtual personal figure and voice may draw from the real figure or fantasy worlds. The virtual figure to some degree reflects the personal expectation, and users may adopt a different personality in the virtual world than in reality.


Internet forum

An
Internet forum An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...
, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. There are many types of Internet forums based on certain themes or groups. The properties of online identities also differ from different type of forums. For example, the users in a university BBS usually know some of the others in reality since the users can only be the students or professors in this university. However the freedom of expression is limited since some university BBSs are under control of the school administration and the identities are related to student IDs. On another hand, some question-and-answer websites like "ZhiHu" in China are open to the public and users can create accounts only with e-mail address. But they can describe their specialties or personal experiences to show reliability in certain questions, and other users can also invite them to answer questions based on their profiles. The answers and profiles can be either real-name or anonymous.


Benefits and concerns


Benefits

A discussed positive aspect of
virtual communities A virtual community is a social network of individuals who connect through specific social media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals. Some of the most pervasive virtual communi ...
is that people can present themselves without fear of persecution, whether it is personality traits, behaviors that they are curious about, or the announcement of a real world identity component that has never before been announced. This freedom results in new opportunities for society as a whole, especially the ability for people to explore the roles of gender and sexuality in a manner that can be harmless, yet interesting and helpful to those undertaking the change. Online identity has given people the opportunity to feel comfortable in wide-ranging roles, some of which may be underlying aspects of the user's life that the user is unable to portray in the real world. Online identity has a beneficial effect for
minority group The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...
s, including racial and ethnic minority populations and
people with disabilities Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, se ...
. Online identities may help remove prejudices created by stereotypes found in real life, and thus provide a greater sense of
inclusion Inclusion or Include may refer to: Sociology * Social inclusion, aims to create an environment that supports equal opportunity for individuals and groups that form a society. ** Inclusion (disability rights), promotion of people with disabiliti ...
. One example of these opportunities is the establishment of many communities welcoming
LGBTQ+ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...
teenagers who are learning to understand their sexuality. These communities allow teenagers to share their experiences with one another or other older members of the LGBTQ+ community, and provide both a non-threatening and non-judgmental safe place. In a review of such a community, Silberman quotes an information technology worker, Tom Reilly, as stating: "The wonderful thing about online services is that they are an intrinsically decentralized resource. Kids can challenge what adults have to say and make the news". If teen organizers are successful anywhere, news of it is readily available. The Internet is arguably the most powerful tool that young people with alternative sexualities have ever had. The online world provides users with a choice to determine which sex, sexuality preference and sexual characteristics they would like to embody. In each online encounter, a user essentially has the opportunity to interchange which identity they would like to portray. As McRae argues in Surkan (2000), "The lack of physical presence and the infinite malleability of bodies complicates sexual interaction in a singular way: because the choice of gender is an "option" rather than a strictly defined biological characteristic, the entire concept of gender as a primary marker of identity becomes partially subverted." Online identity can offer potential social benefits to those with physical and sensory disabilities. The flexibility of online media provides control over their disclosure of impairment, an opportunity not typically available in real world social interactions. Researchers highlight its value in improving inclusion. However, the affordance of normalization offers the possibility of experiencing non-stigmatized identities while also offering the capacity to create harmful and dangerous outcomes, which may jeopardize participants' safety.


Concerns

Primarily, concerns regarding virtual identity revolve around the areas of misrepresentation and the contrasting effects of on and offline existence. Sexuality and sexual behavior online provide some of the most controversial debate with many concerned about the predatory nature of some users. This is particularly in reference to concerns about
child pornography Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a ...
and the ability of
pedophiles Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty a ...
to obscure their identity. The concerns regarding the connection between on and offline lives have challenged the notions of what constitutes a real experience. In reference to gender, sexuality and sexual behavior, the ability to play with these ideas has resulted in a questioning of how virtual experience may affect one's offline emotions. As McRae states, virtual sex not only complicates but drastically unsettles the division between mind, body, and self that has become a comfortable truism in Western metaphysics. When projected into virtuality, mind, body and self all become consciously-manufactured constructs through which individuals interact with each other.


Reliability

The identities that people define in the social web are not necessarily facets of their offline self. Studies show that people lie about themselves on online dating services. In the case of social network services such as Facebook, companies have proposed to sell "friends" as a way to increase a user's visibility, further calling into question the reliability of a person's social identity. Van Gelder reported an incident occurring on a computer conferencing system during the early 80s where a male psychiatrist posed as Julie, a female psychologist with multiple disabilities including deafness, blindness, and serious facial disfigurement. Julie endeared herself to the computer conferencing community, finding psychological and emotional support from many members. The psychiatrist's choice to present differently was sustained by drawing upon the unbearable stigma attached to Julie's multiple disabilities as justification for not meeting face-to-face. Lack of visual cues allowed the identity transformation to continue, with the psychiatrist also assuming the identity of Julie's husband, who adamantly refused to allow anyone to visit Julie when she claimed to be seriously ill. This example highlights the ease with which identity may be constructed, transformed, and sustained by the textual nature of online interaction and the visual anonymity it affords.


Catfishing online

Catfishing Catfishing is a deceptive activity in which a person creates a fictional persona or fake identity on a social networking service, usually targeting a specific victim. The practice may be used for financial gain, to compromise a victim in so ...
is a way for a user to create a fake online profile, sometimes with fake photos and information, in order to enter into a relationship, intimate or platonic, with another user. Catfishing became popular in mainstream culture through the MTV reality show ''
Catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive ...
''.


Identity management infrastructures

A problem facing anyone who hopes to build a positive online reputation is that reputations are site-specific; for example, one's reputation on
eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
cannot be transferred to
Slashdot ''Slashdot'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''/.'') is a social news website that originally advertised itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories concerning science, technology, and politics that are submitted and eval ...
. Multiple proposals have been made to build an identity management infrastructure into the Web
protocols Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states * Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state * Etiquette, a code of personal behavior Science and technology ...
. All of them require an effective public key infrastructure so that the identity of two separate manifestations of an online identity (say, one on
Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...
and another on
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
) are probably one and the same.
OpenID OpenID is an open standard and decentralized authentication protocol promoted by the non-profit OpenID Foundation. It allows users to be authenticated by co-operating sites (known as relying parties, or RP) using a third-party identity provider ...
, an open, decentralized standard for authenticating users is used for access control, allowing users to log on to different services with the same digital identity. These services must allow and implement OpenID.


Context collapse

Context collapse describes the phenomena where the occurrence of multiple social groups in one space causes confusion in how to manage one's online identity. This suggests that in managing identities online, individuals are challenged to differentiate their online expression due to the unmanageable size of audience variations. This phenomenon is particularly relevant to social media platforms. Users are often connected with a wide range of social groups such as family, colleagues and friends. When posting on social media, the presence of these different social groups makes it difficult to decide which aspect of one's personality to present. The term was first coined in 2003 by Microsoft researcher danah boyd in relation to social networking platforms such as MySpace and
Friendster Friendster was a social network game based in Mountain View, California, founded by Jonathan Abrams and launched in March 2003.Eric Eldon, August 4, 2008.Friendster raises $20 million, nabs a Googler to be CEO VentureBeat. Retrieved December 4, 2 ...
. Since 2003, the issue of context collapse has become increasingly significant. Users have been forced to implement strategies to combat context collapse. These strategies include using stricter
privacy settings ByPrivacy settings are "the part of a social networking website, internet browser, piece of software, etc. that allows you to control who sees information about you". With the growing prevalence of social networking services, opportunities for pri ...
and engaging in more "ephemeral mediums" such as Instagram stories and Snapchat in which posts are only temporarily accessible and are less likely to have permanent consequences or an effect on one's reputation.


Reputation management

Given the malleability of online identities, some economists have expressed surprise that flourishing trading sites, such as eBay, have developed on the Internet. When two pseudonymous identities propose to enter into an online transaction, they are faced with the
prisoner's dilemma The Prisoner's Dilemma is an example of a game analyzed in game theory. It is also a thought experiment that challenges two completely rational agents to a dilemma: cooperate with their partner for mutual reward, or betray their partner ("def ...
: the deal can succeed only if the parties are willing to trust each other, but they have no rational basis for doing so. But successful Internet trading sites have developed
reputation management Reputation management, originally a public relations term, refers to the influencing, controlling, enhancing, or concealing of an individual's or group's reputation. The growth of the internet and social media led to growth of reputation manage ...
systems, such as eBay's feedback system, which record transactions and provide the technical means by which users can rate each other's trustworthiness. However, users with malicious intent can still cause serious problems on such websites. An online reputation is the perception that one generates on the Internet based on their
digital footprint Digital footprint or digital shadow refers to one's unique set of traceable digital activities, actions, contributions and communications manifested on the Internet or digital devices. Digital footprints can be classified as either passive or a ...
. Digital footprints accumulate through all of the content shared, feedback provided and information that created online. Due to the fact that if someone has a bad online reputation, he can easily change his pseudonym, new accounts on sites such as eBay or Amazon are usually distrusted. If an individual or company wants to manage their online reputation, they will face many more difficulties. This is why a merchant on the web having a
brick and mortar Brick and mortar (also bricks and mortar or B&M) refers to a physical presence of an organization or business in a building or other structure. The term ''brick-and-mortar business'' is often used to refer to a company that possesses or leases r ...
shop is usually more trusted.


Relation to real-world social constraints

Ultimately, online identity cannot be completely free from the social constraints that are imposed in the real world. As Westfall (2000, p. 160) discusses, "the idea of truly departing from social hierarchy and restriction does not occur on the Internet (as perhaps suggested by earlier research into the possibilities presented by the Internet) with identity construction still shaped by others. Westfall raises the important, yet rarely discussed, issue of the effects of literacy and communication skills of the online user." Indeed, these skills or the lack thereof have the capacity to shape one's online perception as they shape one's perception through a physical body in the "real world."


Disembodiment and implications

This issue of gender and sexual reassignment raises the notion of disembodiment and its associated implications. "Disembodiment" is the idea that once the user is online, the need for the body is no longer required, and the user can participate separately from it. This ultimately relates to a sense of detachment from the identity defined by the physical body. In cyberspace, many aspects of sexual identity become blurred and are only defined by the user. Questions of truth will therefore be raised, particularly in reference to online dating and
virtual sex Virtual sex is sexual activity where two or more people (or one person and a virtual character) gather together via some form of communications equipment to arouse each other, often by the means of transmitting sexually explicit messages. Virtual ...
. As McRae states, "Virtual sex allows for a certain freedom of expression, of physical presentation and of experimentation beyond one's own real-life limits". At its best, it not only complicates but drastically unsettles the division between mind, body and self in a manner only possible through the construction of an online identity.


Legal and security issues


Online identity and user's rights

The future of online
anonymity Anonymity describes situations where the acting person's identity is unknown. Some writers have argued that namelessness, though technically correct, does not capture what is more centrally at stake in contexts of anonymity. The important idea he ...
depends on how an identity management infrastructure is developed. Law enforcement officials often express their opposition to online anonymity and
pseudonymity A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individu ...
, which they view as an open invitation to criminals who wish to disguise their identities. Therefore, they call for an identity management infrastructure that would irrevocably tie online identity to a person's
legal identity In law, a legal person is any person or 'thing' (less ambiguously, any legal entity) that can do the things a human person is usually able to do in law – such as enter into contracts, sue and be sued, own property, and so on. The reason for ...
; in most such proposals, the system would be developed in tandem with a secure national identity document. Eric Schmidt, CEO of
Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
, has stated that the
Google+ Google+ (pronounced and sometimes written as Google Plus; sometimes called G+) was a social network owned and operated by Google. The network was launched on June 28, 2011, in an attempt to challenge other social networks, linking other Google p ...
social network is intended to be exactly such an identity system. The controversy resulting from Google+'s policy of requiring users to sign in using legal names has been dubbed the "
nymwars Nymwars is a name given to series of conflicts over policies that mandate all users of certain internet communications platforms identify themselves using their legal names. The term is mostly associated with Google's name policies on Google+ and ...
". Online civil rights advocates, in contrast, argue that there is no need for a privacy-invasive system because technological solutions, such as reputation management systems, are already sufficient and are expected to grow in their sophistication and utility.


Online predators

An online predator is an Internet user who exploits other users' vulnerability, often for sexual or financial purposes. It is relatively easy to create an online identity which is attractive to people that would not normally become involved with the predator, but fortunately there are a few means by which you can make sure that a person whom you haven't met is actually who they say they are. Many people will trust things such as the style in which someone writes, or the photographs someone has on their web page as a way to identify that person, but these can easily be forged. Long-term Internet relationships may sometimes be difficult to sufficiently understand knowing what someone's identity is actually like. The most vulnerable age group to online predators is often considered to be young teenagers or older children. "Over time - perhaps weeks or even months - the stranger, having obtained as much personal information as possible, grooms the child, gaining his or her trust through compliments, positive statements, and other forms of flattery to build an emotional bond." The victims often do not suspect anything until it is too late, as the other party usually misleads them to believe that they are of similar age. The show
Dateline A dateline is a brief piece of text included in news articles that describes where and when the story was written or filed, though the date is often omitted. In the case of articles reprinted from wire services, the distributing organization i ...
on NBC has, overall, conducted three investigations on online predators. They had adults, posing online as teenage juveniles, engage in sexually explicit conversations with other adults (the predators) and arrange to meet them in person. But instead of meeting a teenager, the unsuspecting adult was confronted by
Chris Hansen Christopher Edward Hansen (born September 13, 1959) is an American television journalist and YouTube personality. He is known for his work on ''Dateline NBC'', in particular the former segment ''To Catch a Predator'', which revolved around catc ...
, an NBC News correspondent, arrested, and shown on nationwide television. ''Dateline'' held investigations in five different locations apprehending a total of 129 men in all. Federal laws have been passed in the U.S. to assist the government when trying to catch online predators. Some of these include wiretapping, so online offenders can be caught in advance, before a child becomes a victim. In California, where one ''Dateline'' investigation took place, it is a misdemeanor for someone to have sexually-tinged conversations with a child online. The men who came to the house were charged with a felony because their intent was obvious.


The market

An online identity that has acquired an excellent reputation is valuable for two reasons: first, one or more persons invested a great deal of time and effort to build the identity's reputation; and second, other users look to the identity's reputation as they try to decide whether it is sufficiently trustworthy. It is therefore unsurprising that online identities have been put up for sale at online auction sites. However, conflicts arise over the ownership of online identities. Recently, a user of a massively multiplayer online game called
EverQuest ''EverQuest'' is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) originally developed by Verant Interactive and 989 Studios for Windows PCs. It was released by Sony Online Entertainment in March 1999 in North Amer ...
, which is owned by Sony Online Entertainment, Inc., attempted to sell his EverQuest identity on eBay. Sony objected, asserting that the character is Sony's
intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
, and demanded the removal of the auction; under the terms of the U.S.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or ...
(DMCA), eBay could have become a party to a
copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...
lawsuit if it failed to comply.


See also

* Digital detox *
Digital identity A digital identity is information used by computer systems to represent an external agent – a person, organization, application, or device. Digital identities allow access to services provided with computers to be automated and make it possibl ...
*
E-authentication Electronic authentication is the process of establishing confidence in user identities electronically presented to an information system. Digital authentication, or e-authentication, may be used synonymously when referring to the authentication proc ...
*
Impression management Impression management is a conscious or subconscious process in which people attempt to influence the perceptions of other people about a person, object or event by regulating and controlling information in social interaction.Sanaria, A. D. (2016). ...
*
Münchausen by Internet Factitious disorder imposed on self, also known as Munchausen syndrome, is a factitious disorder in which those affected feign or induce disease, illness, injury, abuse, or psychological trauma to draw attention, sympathy, or reassurance to t ...
*
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog" is an adage and Internet meme about Internet anonymity which began as a caption to a cartoon drawn by Peter Steiner, published by ''The New Yorker'' on July 5, 1993. dead link The words are those ...
*
Online and offline In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" o ...
*
Online diary An online diary or web diary, is a personal diary or journal that is published on the World Wide Web on a personal website or a diary-hosting website. Overview Online diaries have existed since at least 1994. As a community formed, these publicat ...
* Online identity management * Online identity theft * Online reputation * Persona (user experience) *
Personal information Personal data, also known as personal information or personally identifiable information (PII), is any information related to an identifiable person. The abbreviation PII is widely accepted in the United States, but the phrase it abbreviates ha ...
*
Personal identity Personal identity is the unique numerical identity of a person over time. Discussions regarding personal identity typically aim to determine the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a person at one time and a person at another time ca ...
*
Proteus effect The Proteus effect describes a phenomenon in which the behavior of an individual, within virtual worlds, is changed by the characteristics of their avatar. This change is due to the individual's knowledge about the behaviors that other users who ...
*
Real-name system A real-name system is a system in which users can register an account on a blog, website or bulletin board system using their legal name. Users are required to provide identification credentials and their legal name. A public pseudonym can also ...
*
Self-sovereign identity Self-sovereign identity (SSI) is an approach to digital identity that gives individuals control over the information they use to prove who they are to websites, services, and applications across the web. Without SSI, individuals with persistent ...
*
Sherry Turkle Sherry Turkle (born June 18, 1948) is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She obtained an BA in social studies and later a PhD in sociology and perso ...
*
Shibboleth (Internet2) Shibboleth is a single sign-on log-in system for computer networks and the Internet. It allows people to sign in using just one identity to various systems run by federations of different organizations or institutions. The federations are often un ...
*
Social web The social web is a set of social relations that link people through the World Wide Web. The social web encompasses how websites and software are designed and developed in order to support and foster social interaction. These online social inte ...
*
User profile A user profile is a collection of settings and information associated with a user. It contains critical information that is used to identify an individual, such as their name, age, portrait photograph and individual characteristics such as ...


Notes


External links


European Centre for Reputation Studies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Online Identity Internet privacy Identity (social science)