Understanding your Online Identity
An Overview of Identity
In 1993, when nobody knew if you were a dog, Internet users felt shielded behind an electronic veil of ano-
nymity, able to take on any persona they pleased. Since then, Web-based businesses from Amazon to
Zappos have adopted technologies that build profiles of customers, offer product recommendations, and
keep personal histories that can go back more than a decade. While some Internet users appreciate the con-
venience those digital identities afford, others worry about how much of their personal information is being
stored and how this information is being shared.
This paper is intended to help explain the various different iden-
tities and profiles that represent you online.
What is your identity? And what is your identity, on
the Internet?
Identity has many definitions, but without getting too meta-
physical, we can sum it up in a few words: you are who you
are and what you do. Simply put, your identity is the sum of
your characteristics, including your birthplace and birthday,
the schools you attended, your shoe size, and so on. Some of
those characteristics never change, such as your birthday, and
some change over time, such as your hair color.
Similarly, when you are using the Internet, your online identity is the sum of your characteristics and inter-
actions. Because you interact differently with each website you visit, each of those websites will have a dif-
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