Identity is a concept in cyberspace. It refers to a set of data describing a person or thing (sometimes referred to as subject or entity), or the sum of all information about a person available in the network. It is an online identity, or network identity, adopted by individuals, organizations or electronic devices in the network. These individuals, organizations or electronic devices may have more than one digital identity through different online communities(Moran,2021).
And personal digital identification methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. Generally speaking, although this can bring us a lot of convenience, the related technologies are not fully mature, and there is still a big risk in practical application.
These digital identities are composed of some characteristics or digital attributes. A digital identity may also be associated with other digital identities, such as e-mail. In fact, social media can be regarded as a digital identity of individuals in a certain sense, and it is related and interoperable with others. Although these identity-related attributes can help to determine a person’s identity to a certain extent, these attributes can be changed, hidden or even discarded.
The emergence of digital identity is profoundly changing the driving force and mode of economic and social development. Compared with the traditional identity system, it will greatly improve the overall social efficiency and maximize the release of user value, so that the government, service providers, users and other parties can benefit from it. Users not only have the right to control other people’s access to personal data information, but also can decide when, where and how to publish their own information. At the same time, with the help of digital identity system, the regulatory authorities can strengthen supervision and improve the pertinence and effectiveness of supervision.
At present, users’ digital identity information often exists in different departments, industries and enterprises. Their respective digital identity systems are not connected with each other, and the information of the same person is isolated in different centralized systems. The process of mutual authentication between systems is complicated, and it is difficult to carry out consistent collaborative management. There are many problems, such as imperfect digital infrastructure, insufficient capacity of digital resources development and utilization, challenges of digital social governance, etc. The pain points caused by this development of digital identity field also need to be solved effectively.
Reference
Moran, A. (2021). Digital Identity Management in Formal Education: Implications for Policy and Decision-Making (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.4324/9781003133070
