Week 2 Reflection: Digital Identity



Before week 2, I am not sure the meaning of ‘Digital Identity’. From the topic, I guessed that digital identity means that every online user has a virtual identification when they use networks which can let others know your personal details.

In week 2, I have learnt what is Digital Identity, what others can find and affect me as well as how to protect myself when I use social media.

What is Digital Identity?


A digital identity (DI) is an online or networked identity adopted or claimed in cyberspace by a person, company or electronic device. Online users use DI to describe the person an individual presents across all the digital communities in which he or she is represented. They may project more than one digital identity through multiple communities as well. Based on digital identity management, key areas of concern are security and privacy (Techopedia, 2017).

From ' Malte Spitz's phone records ' and the video ' Your digital footprint ', I have learnt that people can get my personal details when I do almost everything, such as browse webpages, click buttons or send a email. There are three ways to erase my digital footprints:
  • Log out at the end of the session 
  • Delete cookies
  • Select private browsing

'Where am I ?'

Malte Spitz's phone records let me feel interested at the location sharing, so I chose the worksheet ' Where am I ? '. Before I did this worksheet, I thought it is common when I go outside and share my location on Facebook. However, I realized that it is dangerous to share, especially to many strangers or unfamiliar friends, your location details online. Even you just post the location, everyone around the world who wants to find you will find you. In the scenario, Sam is only 12 years old. He is so young and cannot protect himself properly, so he should't send the route from the train station to their college. For Gina, the route from train station to her college is her private and personal information. She can only send to the person she trusts like her brother Sam when she has to. Without this information, Sam may get lost in London. As for AI, she can send the route from train station to the college to new college students who are not familiar with London. In my view, three of them usually should not send their current co-ordinates to others. However, they can share their co-ordinates to each other if two of them want to find each other quickly. Besides, sharing holiday destinations to close friends are fine. Especially, Gina and AI, who are old enough, can find who are interested at the same place to plan to travel together. For Sam, he usually has to travel with his guardians. According to my experience, it is fine to share a map to show countries I have visited online since I am not there now.

After I finished this worksheet, there were some key findings:
  • Three kinds of people have different privacy level. For Sam, he is young boy who does not have as much private information as Gina and AI.
  • People who has different position has different private information.
  • People from different age group have different opinions on privacy.
  • Some things like pasts are fine to share with acquaintances, while some personal details like current co-ordinates are better to keep in secret.
  • It is convenient for people to share their location information online.
There were some following surprises:
  • It is easier for me to think like a person who is in similar situation. For instance, Gina, a female postgraduate student, is in similar situation to me, so I can think for her easily.
  • I am not really familiar with lecturer’s thoughts.
  • I thought sharing location details to others online is dangerous, but I ignored it also has benefits, including meet friends nearby.
According to interview video of twitter chairman, it is necessary for me to know how to use social media if I want to protect my digital identity. Do not familiar with social media privacy settings tends to big disaster, including the leak of messages.

The public views on Justine Sacco

From two videos about Justine Sacco, most people criticize her because she has a well-educated PR person. Some criticizers even made worse comments under her tweet which made her hurt. Since she was on the plane at that time, she got more tweet followers but lost her job. What's the worse, she got fired because of her joke. I have discovered that many organizations start to hire or fire their employees by using social media to monitor their daily behaviors. More importantly, it is crucial to consider deeply before post or criticize others online. On the contrary, the news of Justine Sacco also brought a silver lining which led more people donate since they start to focus on South Africa AIDS issue.
Above all, I learned that be aware of my digital identity at any time. To protect myself, I should not write many personal details and should delete digital footprints after use the Internet. I should think deeply before post everything online.



References

Techopedia. (2017). Digital Identity. Retrieved August 14, 2017, from https://www.techopedia.com/definition/23915/digital-identity.

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