1. International Centre for
Ethics in the Sciences and
Humanities
Online Identity and the Fragmentation of the
Internet
March 2nd 2013, Tobias Matzner

2. In acting and speaking, men show who they are, reveal
actively their unique personal identities and thus make
their appearance in the human world [...]. This disclosure
of “who” [...] somebody is [...], is implicit in everything
somebody says and does. [...] [I]ts disclosure can almost
never be achieved as a willful purpose [...]. On the
contrary, it is more than likely that the “who,” which
appears so clearly and unmistakably to others, remains
hidden from the person himself.
The disclosure of the “who” [...] always falls into an
already existing web [of human relations] where [its]
immediate consequences can be felt.
Hannah Arendt (1998). The Human Condition. Chicago: Chicago University Press, pp. 179, 183
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3. personality online
• I am the person in the stories that others tell about me
- no distinction of person online and offline
- distinction of online and offline contexts
- possibilities to act/interact determine possibilities of disclosure of
personality
• visibility is something that is wanted
- privacy is a concern, but not the only one
- important not to forget who remains invisible
• ... but not always
- feeling exposed/under surveillance might deter peoeple form acting
- surveillance as social sorting
• Two important questions:
- Who is visible?
- What are the modes and possibilities of disclosure? (How is someone
visible?)
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4. Inspired by Philip Brey’s and Lucas Introna’s work on
disclosive computer ethics:
• “The process of designing technology is as much a process of
closing down alternatives as it is a process of the opening up
of possibilities.” (Introna 2005)
• “Imbedded in the software and hardware code of these
systems are complex rules of logic and categorisation that
may have material consequences for those using it, or for the
production of social order more generally.” (Introna 2005)
• Design of technology makes certain – often implicit –
assumptions about the users and context.
Philip Brey (2000). “Disclosive computer ethics”. In: ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society
30 (4), pp. 10–16
Lucas Introna (2005). “Disclosive ethics and information technology: disclosing facial
recognition systems”. In: Ethics and Information Technology 7 (2), pp. 75–86
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5. the fragmentation of the internet
• social networking sites and other popular internet services like
Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter (“membership sites”)
increasingly limit access for non-members via the World Wide
Web or open standards like RSS (replaced by APIs)
• “apps” are replacing access to internet services via the more
universal and integrative web browsers
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6. perspectives for analysis
• technology and code
• legal aspects
• surveillance and social control
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7. technology and code: developers
HTML and related markup languages vs. app development
• not much of a difference concerning technical limitations (e.g.
necessity of formalized content)
• differences concerning who can use the technology
(accessibility)
• promising accessibility features via apps
• less adherence to standards in app development
• better policies for HTML (e.g. WCAG Guidelines by the W3C)
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8. technology and code: users
free description vs. formalized description
formalized environments...
• simplify participation in online communication
• provide a kind of “semantics” that enables accessibility
technologies
• restrict the features or perspectives a person is disclosing
• restrict the content of these features
• just the existence of a data field makes a difference (not
disclosing something is disclosing something)
• the acts of the persons in the context have less or no influence
on the “semantics” or customs
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9. legal aspects
hosting own website / blog
• to an extent possibility to choose legal framework (nation of
hosting company):
- seek protection (e.g. minority rights) or evade persecution
• usually considered as part of the public sphere
- protection by basic rights to freedom of expression, participation
- possibly protection by rights for journalists/publishers (can lead to
undesired exposure)
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10. legal aspects
membership site / apps
• more legal parties: service provider, app market, app
developer, mobile carrier
- increasing importance of civil law
- netiquette becomes legal agreement (terms of use)
- to what extent basic rights (e.g. privacy) can be yielded in civil
contracts matter of debate
• “market driven morals”
• necessity to deal with foreign legal systems
• rights to contents that reveal one’s personality have to be
yielded to a company in exchange for visibility
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11. surveillance and social control
formalized content about personality allows easy, fine-grained and
automated search
• enables contacts based on features which are not easily
disclosed in most offline contexts
• enables fine-grained management of visibility / interaction
• facilitates control and surveillance
- service providers
- law enforcement
• personal appearance competes / conflicts with convenience,
trends, friends from overlapping contexts, privacy concerns, ...
(social pressure to enter and conform to the context)
• can contribute to social pressure on certain persons / groups
to leave the context
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12. surveillance and social control
dependance on service / “lock-in”
• need to accept norms and customs of membership site / app
for visibility
• difficulty to migrate to new services and increased legal
regulation destroys trust
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13. Thank you!
International Centre for Ethics in
the Sciences and Humanities
Wilhemstraße 19
72074 Tübingen
Germany
+49 7071 29-77988
tobias.matzner@uni-tuebingen.de
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