QotW5: Identity crisis

As communication becomes a major activity in our lives, identity as well as identification becomes important as well. To fully comprehend and evaluate an interaction, it is essential to know the identity of those whom which we communicate with. Identity is usually known as the distinct personality or characteristic by which a person is recognized. With virtual communities becoming more widespread among us, the identity that we take on online becomes vital. An online identity is a social identity that network users establish in online communities. (“Online identity”, 2007) There are a few ways in which one can identify themselves with. Some might choose to use their real names, while others might choose to use pseudonyms. Avatar – an icon-sized graphic image – can also be used to represent one-self. As technology advances, there are many channels (e.g. forums, instant messaging, blogs, and email) that allow one to take on a virtual online identity. As for me, email would be the one virtual online identity that I own and am most familiar with.

I am pretty sure that email is no stranger to all who has access to the Internet. As for myself, I had my email account since I was in secondary school which is more than eight years ago. From then, I have been email hopping. Started out with having one Hotmail account, till today, I have three email accounts; one Hotmail, one Yahoo mail and one Gmail. However, my main email account would be the Gmail. The most straightforward form of identification is the account name. (Donath, 1996) With no difference, the first form of identity for the email would be the user’s account name. In order to start having an account, one would have to sign up and that requires a user/login name and password. Every user/login name is unique which makes one’s online identity exclusive. For myself, I made use of my first name and year of birth “joanne85” to create my own online identity. Other personal information is kept under the “Settings” function.

As with what most people do with email, I too used mine to create, send, store and receive messages from people. It is a great way for me to keep contact with relatives and friends who are overseas. Other than that, I use my email to receive newsletters and updates from forums and other services such as iTunes store and eNets. It is easier to store an attachment – a document, picture or even an audio file – using an email as compared to using a disk or memory card. A single click of your mouse moves messages out of your Inbox into a secure archive where you can quickly find them with a simple search. (About Gmail, 2007) With such a function, one need not be worried over losing important emails and attachments. Apart from the basic use of email, Gmail also allows users to chat instantly with friends using the “Gmail Chat” function. Sometimes when the Instant Messaging service is down, this feature would come in useful. It is an alternative for me to chat with my friends without going crazy over not being to sign into my Instant Messenger. Additionally, Gmail makes the online identity even more exclusive. The “Gmail Pictures” function allows users to add a face to a name. Users can choose to put up a photo for themselves or for their contacts. This photo has the plays the same role as an avatar.

(gmail.com)

Compared to the physical world, it is relatively easy to pass as someone else online since there are relatively few identity cues. (Donath, 1996) It is certainly possible for one to break into and steal someone’s email account. With the availability of information of ourselves online – through weblogs, friendster, facebook and other social networking site – it is not impossible for one to collect vital information about us and use it to hack our accounts. As stated, “impersonated postings are made simply by signing the target’s name” (Donath, 1996). With the given information, impersonating someone is not that hard after all. The dangers of such break in are high. Other than stealing our identity, these thieves would be able to get their hands onto mails with other login names and passwords that we have. From there, they would be able to compromise our other accounts and it would be terrible if they managed to get information about our banking accounts. The Gmail Help Center provides methods and ways that can help users to secure their accounts. If in any case, a user’s account has been compromise, it would be best to inform the Security Center where they would investigate the matter and to change the password immediately. Other than that, Gmail also does its part in fighting phishing. Gmail uses the detail of phishing messages to help identify possible phishing attacks. (Gmail: Help Center, 2006) The image below is an example of how Gmail would alert users of suspected phishing.

(gmail.com)

As we spend more time online, we are indirectly putting ourselves in danger of being robbed of our identity. Identity theft is the crime of the information age. (Schneier, 2005) Although the law and service providers are helping to protect us and our online identity, we as users have to do our part in preventing identity thefts as well. Simple acts such as being aware of the information that we provide online and changing passwords regularly would benefit ourselves in the long run.

References:

Donath, J. S. (1996). Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. Retrieved February 21, 2007 from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html

Chester, A. (2004). The Real Me Online: Identity Play on the Internet. Retrieved February 21, 2007 from http://www.odr.info/unforum2004/chester.htm

Schneier, B. (2005, April 15). Schneier on Security. Retrieved February 21, 2007 from http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/04/mitigating_iden.html

Email (2007, January 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 21, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=E-mail&oldid=103248299

Online identity (2007, February 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 21, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Online_identity&oldid=108207999

Gmail. (2007). “Gmail: Help Center”. February 21, 2007, from https://mail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=1563&security=1

Gmail. (2007). “About Gmail”. February 21, 2007, from http://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/about.html