A burgeoning list of user names and passwords, used for everything from paying an energy bill to logging on to a social network with former classmates to reading a news website, has created a modern-day annoyance: an unending digital baptism as each new website requires people to coin new nicknames and passwords. But there are also privacy and security concerns. People continue to deposit information about themselves all across the Internet, often without clear control over that data.

An angry boyfriend took over his girlfriend's online persona to insult her friends so as to forge negative relationships. On the internet, there is currently no effective way of verifying who someone claims to be, or whether someone's identity has been hijacked. Our online identity is something we tend to take for granted, yet financial identity theft has increased exponentially.

Nearly 10 million Americans fell victim to identity theft in 2008. Older Internet users display a greater concern for protecting their online information. While Generation X and Baby Boomers have a high level of concern about identity theft, Generation Y, those aged 19 to 30, have a rather lackadaisical approach according to a research company.

Identity can be tied to a systemic view or an individual view. The former is the provenance of centralised systems and intrusive governments, the latter usually confined to the realms of philosophy or psychology. The individual focus plays an increasingly important role in the online world as individuals drive their own identity.

Information Cards are the online equivalent of cards to prove our identify and provide information. The high-tech cards, however, are a visual representation of a personal digital identity which can be shared with online entities. Consumers are able to manage the information in their cards, have multiple cards with different levels of detail, and easily select the card they want to use for any given transaction.

Strangers can build a fairly complete picture of our movements, transactions and relationships from the cyber-trail we leave behind. This has major implications for what has become a pervasive tool to society, business and administrations. Privacy and identity management are fast becoming fundamental to future developments on the internet. Hard-won trust in e-commerce and in using e-government services, for example, could quickly erode if security issues are not properly addressed.

The vast array of data points that make up "personal information" in the age of online media are nearly impossible to quantify or neatly define. Name, address, and phone number are just the basics in a world where voluntarily posting self-authored content such as text, photos, and video has become a cornerstone of engagement in the era of the participatory Web. The more content we contribute voluntarily to the public or semi-public corners of the Web, the more we are not only findable, but also knowable.

20 percent of online daters admit to deception but an interviewing reveals that the real amount is 90 percent. Self-reported data can be unreliable, especially those from people asked to confess bad things about themselves, several researchers have sought objective ways to quantify online deception. Add community-based matchmaking to enriched virtual dating, and we have turned the Internet into the greatest yenta the world has ever known.

Membership systems are no remedy, and they won't stop a person who wants to disrupting your site. But they offer a way to connect a website's community to a real person, and that person to their actions. It works to limit the disinhibitory effects of online behavior (the more negative ones) and creates a subtle but important psychological difference between an anonymous visitor and a known community member.

Membership systems are no remedy, and they won't stop a person who wants to disrupting your site. But they offer a way to connect a website's community to a real person, and that person to their actions. It works to limit the disinhibitory effects of online behavior (the more negative ones) and creates a subtle but important psychological difference between an anonymous visitor and a known community member.

The Internet has matured to a point where so much of one's life is online that some people need methods of self-promotion and self-protection, concepts usually associated with the imagemakers of politicians and Hollywood stars. As more employers, workers, and singles use the Internet to check someone out, the idea of managing one's online presence doesn't sound so strange.

personal and cultural identities in a globalized society