This presentation is used in a workshop I facilitate at the University of Leeds. Last updated 2014.

1. Are you feeling lucky?
Your digital Identity
Kirsten Thompson
@_KirstenT | K.Thompson@adm.leeds.ac.uk

2. 1. Digital identities
2. Personal VS Professional
3. Managing your identity
Outline

3. 1. Digital identities

4. ‘Digital identity can
be defined as all
the online
information and
data specifically
about an
individual.’
(Last accessed 26/06/13 at:
http://distance.uvic.ca/students/identity.htm)
Your
Digital
Identity

5. Creating an account on
the social web is a
choice.
Having a digital identity
is not.
We all have a digital
footprint.

6. Your digital identity =
everything about you
on the web
Verified / non-verified
– both important

7. What else are you
sharing?
WHOIS database
Location services
Social media privacy
Mobile device security

8. How do you verify who you are talking
to online? How do others verify you?

9. How easy is it to steal
your online identity?

10. Who
manages
your digital
identity?

11. This was posted on Twitter during a recent
conference presentation #NoEscape

12. Definition of a meme:
‘noun
1 an element of a culture or
system of behaviour
passed from one individual
to another by imitation or
other non-genetic means.
2 an image, video, piece of
text, etc., typically
humorous in nature, that is
copied and spread rapidly
by Internet users, often with
slight variations.’
(Oxford Dictionaries, online, last accessed 09/07/13 at:
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/meme)
Grumpy Cat meme

13. Some companies
create profiles for
us using public
information on the
web – inaccurate
and merging
identities.

14. .com
What will you
find?

15. The Wayback Machine has archived
over 240 billion web pages from
1996 – think about your digital
footprint
http://archive.org/web/web.php

16. Are you feeling lucky?

17. You can
manage your
digital identity,
you cannot
control it

18. 2. Personal VS Professional

19. How do you currently
use social media?
1. Finding and using
content on the social
web
2. Joining and building
networks
3. Creating, curating
and sharing content
4. Improving
productivity
5. Managing reputation
Activity

20. Challenges idea of digital natives and immigrants
“Our Visitors and Residents typology should be understood as a
continuum and not a binary opposition. Individuals may be able to place
themselves at a particular point along this continuum rather than in one of
two boxes.
Nor is a predominantly Visitor approach necessarily any less effective or of
less value than a predominantly
Resident approach since the value of either has to be set against a given
context and set of goals. Similarly, we do not consider the Visitor to be
necessarily any less technically adept than the Resident.”
(White and Le Cornu, 2011, http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/3171/3049)
Visitors and Residents

21. • See web as untidy garden tool
shed
• Defined goal or task
• Select most appropriate tool for
task
• Need to see concrete benefit from
use of a platform
• Relatively anonymous
• Try to avoid the creation of digital
identity
• Caution: identity theft, privacy
• Sense that online social networking
is banal and potentially a time waster
• Will use technology to maintain
relationships
• Web offers set of tools to deliver or
manipulate content (including
conversations)
• Tendency to respect (and seek out)
authoritative sources
• Thinking often takes place offline
• Users, not members, of the web
• See no value in ‘belonging‘ online
• See web as place (park, building) where clusters
of friends and colleagues meet
• Live out a proportion of their life online
• Distinction between online and offline increasingly
blurred
• Sense of belonging to a community
• Have a profile in social networking platforms
• Comfortable expressing their identity online
• Web is a place to express opinions, to form and
extend relationships, maintain and develop a
digital identity
• Aspect of their persona remains once logged off
• See web as networks or clusters of individuals
who generate content/opinion
• No clear distinction between concepts of persona
and content
Visitors Residents
(White and Le Cornu 2011)
How do you see and
use the web?

22. Map your online activity e.g.
Personal
Professional
Visitor Resident
(@DaveOWhite, Talking About Teaching
Event, University of Leeds, 2013)

23. “Don’t say (or do)
anything you
wouldn’t on 5
Live.”
Rory Cellan-Jones
Social media = public
Separate personal and
professional, makes each
presence more useful to
your networks
You’re not anonymous on
social media – dangerous to
think you are
Impact of liking, re-tweeting
Click the video to watch

24. Email
Do you use the same e-mail address to
manage all your social media accounts?
Are you merging personal, professional and
institutional social profiles?
Social media sites encourage us to integrate
our email address book – your email contacts
will find you, whether you want to be found or
not.

25. When
things go
wrong…

26. http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/twitter-trolls-u-turn-after-users-threaten-to-tell-his-mum

27. Case: Lord McAlpine falsely accused
Alleged offence: Libel
Case: Twitter users name victim of rape by
footballer Ched Evans
Offence: The Sexual Offences (Amendment)
Act 1992
Case: Social media users circulated alleged
pictures of child killer Jon Venables
Alleged offence: Contempt of Court
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20782257

28. Case: Juror Joanne Fraill contact defendant in trial by
Facebook
Offence: Contempt of Court
Case: Paul Chambers joked on Twitter that he would
blow up Robin Hood Airport
Offence: Sending a “menacing electronic
communication” under the 2003 Communications Act
Case: Reading man Sean Duff mocks dead children
on social media sites
Offence: Making “grossley offensive” comments under
the Malicious Communications Act 1988
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20782257

29. 653 people faced criminal charges in England and
Wales in 2012 in connection with comments on Twitter
or Facebook.
These divided into offences committed on the two
sites, such as posting abusive messages, and those
which had been provoked by messages, including
violent attacks.
Many of the offences, such as harassment or threats
to kill would have been committed, albeit in a different
way, before social media was invented.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20782257

30. 3. Managing
your identity

31. Are you feeling lucky?
Start thinking like a search engine –
be the top of your own search
results.

32. Use Google Alerts
to keep updated on
what others are
saying about you
(your work, project
etc) on the web. It
won’t search
everything, but can
assist in managing
your digital identity.

33. accidentaloutlaw.knowthenet.org.uk

34. Existing laws apply online as they do offline – new Defamation
Act 2013 (good news). BBC Defamation article
Only share information when you have permission and obtain
permission to publish someone else’s work
Avoid making comments and being supportive of the comments
or actions of others, if they could get you in trouble.
Everything shared on social media, regardless of privacy
settings can be captured.
Educate your social network – your “private” Facebook Timeline
is only as secure as the devices you/your Facebook “friends”
use.
Put simply…think first, share second

35. Think about security and privacy
1. Use official mobile apps and trusted third-party apps – check reviews.
2. Location services – what else are you sharing with the world?
3. Are your mobile devices secure? What information are you giving away if
your device is lost/stolen? Is your device set up for remote wiping?
4. A service or App might be secure, your internet access might not be –
think about what you do/where you do it – public Wi-Fi can be dangerous.
5. Do you need to remain logged into all apps at all times? Think about your
web history too.
6. Be wary of hackers, account cloning, phishing scams, rogue links.
7. Unused accounts at risk – monitor or close | consider strong password
security.

36. Keep
updated
about
online
safety
and the
law
www.socialmedialaw.co.uk
www.thatsnonsense.com/