– What is a digital identity?

Digital identity is a concept that refers to the sum of all the information available about a person in the network. Digital identities are made up of several characteristics or digital attributes. While these identity-related attributes can help determine a person’s identity to some extent, these attributes can be changed, hidden, or even discarded.

 

– How do personal versus professional approaches to digital identity affect social media use?

In professional approaches, social media use is affected by professional’s attitudes using social media to learn professional ways and means to communicate. And for personal approaches, it is affected by people’s intention to engage in different activities on it. For instance, social media can be used to stimulate life-long learning habits that are otherwise lost.

 

– How do digital identities converge in networked publics?

Digital identity is an essential element in the networked public. It is the sum of all user’s digital footprints. Anything people said or did on the internet is searchable and tracible, which means that earlier presence might be sources of information that could be either beneficial or disadvantageous to one person in the future. Imagine someone made comments to a small number of people in the context back in the day where they were appropriate(Stoller). Years from now, those comments can resurface again and disseminate to everyone in the same networked publics. Those comments can either receive a new round of examination and considered inappropriate, or it receives applause for its intelligence.

 

– What are the impacts and/or benefits? – Can a digital wallet provide trust in networked publics?

The emergence of digital identity is profoundly changing the dynamics of economic and social development. The first impact is that users are allowed to utilize more agency control over their data privay. Users not only have the right to control other people’s access to their personal data information but also can decide when and where, and in what way to publish their information. The second benefit is that government communicates with citizens more efficiently. The digital identity records all citizens’ key identity data and behavioral information, and the government can help with their different needs accordingly. Things like signing off important papers or paying taxes could be done electronically to save up time and money(Davos). At the same time, from the perspective of regulators, with the digital identity system, the regulator can strengthen supervision and enhance the relevance and effectiveness of supervision. However, the key here is to determine a balance between security and privacy so that it is not used for any other purposes and more people will sign up for it.

 

References

Davos 2019 – Press Conference The Value of Digital Identity for the Global Economy and Society. “Davos 2019 – Press Conference the Value of Digital Identity for the Global Economy and Society.” YouTube, 5 Feb. 2019, youtu.be/1-V7lyxrOmw. Accessed 1 Feb. 2021.

Stoller, Eric. “Eric Stoller – What Is Digital Identity?” YouTube, 25 Nov. 2016, youtu.be/u0RryRbJza0. Accessed 1 Feb. 2021.