Session 3 Readings - Identity & Ethics

These articles touched on all sorts of viewpoints and aspects of online identities. An identity is supposed to let others know in essence who we are. It encompasses information about ourselves and our lives. An online identity is very different from our identities out in the real world. Surely small chunks of our virtual identity can be used in pieces to authenticate us, but for the most part, it can not do so accurately. The main reason is anonymity. People have the choice to create multiple identities online, some of which may or may not be true. Some people experiment because they can do so freely without judgment, and because they have the power to erase any of this at their disposure. The Internet also allows us to be selective about which audiences we let see certain information about us. All of these things make it very hard to capture someone’s true identity on-line.

The gender switching topic was very interesting to say the least. The first excerpt about Brad struck me very funny initially, but then I started to empathize for him because he thought he had made a genuine connection with a person, and the whole time he was being deceived. On the other hand, didn’t he make himself susceptible to this deceit? When on the Internet, you MUST realize that you can’t believe everything you read because is it so easy to falsify information. This is especially true when it comes to meeting new people. This is exactly why I keep my guard up on the Internet. I usually only communicate with people that I actually know in the real world. Otherwise, you never really know who or what you’re dealing with.

I found an article about a current event dealing with the topic of discussion. It involves the organization Letix hiring a company called Comodo to provide authentication and online identity assurance best practices. Check it out here: http://www.webknowhow.net/news/press/070523ComodoGroup.html