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Encyclopedia > Digital identity

Digital identity refers to the aspect of digital technology that is concerned with the mediation of people's experience of their own identity and the identity of other people and things.


Digital identity also has another common usage as the digital representation of a set of claims made by one digital subject about itself or another digital subject. A digital system is one that uses discrete values (often electrical voltages), especially those representable as binary numbers, or non-numeric symbols such as letters or icons, for input, processing, transmission, storage, or display, rather than a continuous spectrum of values (ie, as in an analog system). ... Digital identity refers to the aspect of digital technology that is concerned with the mediation of peoples experience of their own identity and the identity of other people and things. ...

Contents

Digital subject

A digital subject is an entity represented or existing in the digital realm which is being described or dealt with. Every digital subject has a finite, but unlimited number of identity attributes.


A digital subject can be human or non-human. Non-human examples include:

  • Devices and computers (which allow us to penetrate the digital realm in the first place);
  • Digital resources (which attract us to it);
  • Policies and relationships between other digital subjects (e.g., between humans and devices or documents or services).

Identity through relationship

An observer's perception of the digital identity of an entity is inevitably mediated by the subjective viewpoint of that observer (just as it is with physical identity). In order to attribute a digital representation to an entity, and so to elide the two as a digital subject, the attributing party (the observer) must trust that the representation does indeed pertain to the entity (see Authentication below). Conversely, the entity may only grant the observer selective access to its informational attributes (according to the identity of the observer from the perspective of the entity). In this way, digital identity is better understood as a particular viewpoint within a mutually-agreed relationship than as an objective property. In copyright law, attribution is the requirement to acknowledge or credit the author of a work which is used or appears in another work. ... Digital identity refers to the aspect of digital technology that is concerned with the mediation of peoples experience of their own identity and the identity of other people and things. ... Digital identity refers to the aspect of digital technology that is concerned with the mediation of peoples experience of their own identity and the identity of other people and things. ...


This contextual nature of digital identity is referred to as contextual identity.


Authentication

Authentication is a key aspect of trust-based identity attribution, providing a codified assurance of the identity of one entity to another. Authentication methodologies include the presentation of a unique object such as a bank credit card, the provision of confidential information such as a password or the answer to a pre-arranged question, the confirmation of ownership of an e-mail address, and more robust but relatively costly solutions utilising encryption methodologies. In general, business-to-business authentication prioritises security while user to business authentication tends towards simplicity. New physical authentication techniques such as iris scanning, handprinting, and voiceprinting are currently being developed and in the hope of providing improved protection against identity theft. Authentication (Greek: αυθεντικός = real or genuine, from authentes = author ) is the act of establishing or confirming something (or someone) as authentic, that is, that claims made by or about the thing are true. ... // Shared brand bank credit cards Global VISA MasterCard Regional Bankcard (Australia, New Zealand, So. ... A password is a form of secret authentication data that is used to control access to a resource. ... // In cryptography, encryption is the process of obscuring information to make it unreadable without special knowledge. ... An iris scan is one of the most currently used methods of biometric authentication. ... A spectrogram of violin playing with linear frequency on the vertical axis and time on the horizontal axis. ... Identity theft is a term first emerging in U.S. literature circa 1996. ...


Identifiers

Digital identity fundamentally requires digital identifiers—strings or tokens that are unique within a given scope (globally or locally within a specific domain, community, directory, application, etc.). Identifiers are the key used by the parties to an identification relationship to agree on the entity being represented. Identifiers may be classified as omnidirectional and unidirectional. [1] Omnidirectional identifiers are intended to be public and easily discoverable, while unidirectional identifiers are intended to be private and used only in the context of a specific identity relationship.


Identifiers may also be classified as resolvable or non-resolvable. Resolvable identifiers, such as a domain name or e-mail address, may be dereferenced into the entity they represent. Non-resolvable identifiers, such as a person's real-world name, or a subject or topic name, can be compared for equivalence but are not otherwise machine-understandable. The term domain name has multiple related meanings: A name that is entered into a computer (e. ... An e-mail address, also known as an eddress (from electronic address) or simply as ones email, identifies a location to which e-mail messages can be delivered. ...


There are many different schemes and formats for digital identifiers. The most widely used is Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) and its internationalized version Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI)—the standard for identifiers on the World Wide Web. OpenID and Light-Weight Identity (LID) are two web authentication protocols that use standard HTTP URIs (often called URLs), for example. A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), is a compact string of characters used to identify or name a resource. ... The introduction of this article does not provide enough context for readers unfamiliar with the subject. ... WWWs historical logo designed by Robert Cailliau The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is a system of interlinked, hypertext documents that runs over the Internet. ... The OpenID logo OpenID is a decentralized digital identity system, in which any users online identity is given by URL (such as for a blog or a home page) or an XRI, and can be verified by any server running the protocol. ... Light-Weight Identity (LID) is a system created by NetMesh for verifying identity on the Internet. ...


A new OASIS standard for abstract, structured identifiers, XRI (Extensible Resource Identifiers), adds new features to URIs and IRIs that are especially useful for digital identity systems. OpenID also supports XRIs, and XRIs are the basis for i-names. Oasis in the Libyan part of the Sahara In geography, an oasis (plural: oases) is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source. ... XRI (eXtensible Resource Identifier) is a scheme and resolution protocol for abstract identifiers compatible with Uniform Resource Identifiers and Internationalized Resource Identifiers, developed by the XRI Technical Committee at OASIS. The goal of XRIs is to provide a universal format for identifiers that are domain-, location-, application-, and transport-independent... The OpenID logo OpenID is a decentralized digital identity system, in which any users online identity is given by URL (such as for a blog or a home page) or an XRI, and can be verified by any server running the protocol. ... I-name - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...


Legal aspects of digital identity

Self-determination and freedom of expression of digital identity could become a new human right. A digital identity could also become a new legal entity in the future. Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... A legal entity is a legal construct through which the law allows a group of natural persons to act as if it were a single composite individual for certain purposes. ...


Ontologies of identity

Digital identity attributes—or data—exist within the context of ontologies. A simple example of an ontology is "A cat is a kind of animal." An entity represented in this ontology as a "cat" is therefore invariably also considered an "animal." In establishing the contextual relationship of identity attributes to one another, ontologies are able to represent identity in terms of pre-defined structures. This in turn allows computer applications to process identity attributes in a reliable and useful manner. XML (eXtensible Markup Language) has become a de facto standard for the abstract description of structured data. In both computer science and information science, an ontology is a data model that represents a domain and is used to reason about the objects in that domain and the relations between them. ... Trinomial name Felis silvestris catus (Linnaeus, 1758) The cat (or domestic cat, house cat) is a small carnivorous mammal. ... Phyla Subregnum Parazoa Porifera Subregnum Eumetazoa Placozoa Orthonectida Rhombozoa Radiata (unranked) Ctenophora Cnidaria Bilateria (unranked) Acoelomorpha Myxozoa Superphylum Deuterostomia Chordata Hemichordata Echinodermata Chaetognatha Xenoturbellida Superphylum Ecdysozoa Kinorhyncha Loricifera Priapulida Nematoda Nematomorpha Onychophora Tardigrada Arthropoda Superphylum Platyzoa Platyhelminthes Gastrotricha Rotifera Acanthocephala Gnathostomulida Micrognathozoa Cycliophora Superphylum Lophotrochozoa Sipuncula Nemertea Phoronida Ectoprocta Bryozoa... The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a W3C-recommended general-purpose markup language that supports a wide variety of applications. ...


Ontologies inevitably reflect culturally and personally relative world views. Consider two possible elaborations of the above example: Cultural relativism is the principle that an individual humans beliefs and activities make sense in terms of his or her own culture. ...

  1. "A cat is a kind of animal. A domestic cat is a kind of cat and is a pet."
  2. "A cat is a kind of animal. A domestic cat is a kind of cat and is edible by humans."

Someone searching the first ontology for pets would find "domestic cat," whereas a search of the second ontology for foodstuffs would yield the same result! We can see that while each ontology is useful within a particular cultural context or set of contexts, neither represents a universally valid point of view on domestic cats.


The development of digital identity network solutions that can interoperate ontologically-diverse representations of digital identity is a contemporary challenge. Free-tagging has emerged recently as an effective way of circumventing this challenge (to date, primarily with application to the identity of digital entities such as bookmarks and photos) by effectively flattening identity attributes into a single, unstructured layer. However, the organic integration of the benefits of both structured and fluid approaches to identity attribute management remains elusive. A folksonomy is a collaboratively generated, open-ended labeling system that enables Internet users to categorize content such as Web pages, online photographs, and Web links. ...


Networked identity

Identity relationships within a digital network may include multiple identity entities. However, in a decentralised network like the Internet, such extended identity relationships effectively require both (a) the existence of independent trust relationships between each pair of entities in the relationship and (b) a means of reliably integrating the paired relationships into larger relational units. And if identity relationships are to reach beyond the context of a single, federated ontology of identity (see Ontologies of identity above), identity attributes must somehow be matched across diverse ontologies. The development of network approaches that can embody such integrated "compound" trust relationships is currently a topic of much debate in the blogosphere. Digital identity refers to the aspect of digital technology that is concerned with the mediation of peoples experience of their own identity and the identity of other people and things. ... Blogosphere is the collective term encompassing all blogs as a community or social network. ...


Integrated compound trust relationships allow, for example, entity A to accept an assertion or claim about entity B by entity C. C thus vouches for an aspect of B's identity to A.


A key feature of "compound" trust relationships is the possibility of selective disclosure from one entity to another of locally relevant information. As an illustration of the potential application of selective disclosure, let us suppose a certain Diana wished to book a hire car without disclosing irrelevant personal information (utilising a notional digital identity network that supports compound trust relationships). As an adult, UK resident with a current driving license, Diana might have the UK's Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency vouch for her driving qualification, age and nationality to a car-rental company without having her name or contact details disclosed. Similarly, Diana's bank might assert just her banking details to the rental company. Selective disclosure allows for appropriate privacy of information within a network of identity relationships. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (the DVLA) is an agency of the Department for Transport in the United Kingdom. ...


A classic form of networked digital identity is the "White Pages". An electronic white pages links various devices, like computers and telephones, to an individual or organization. Various attributes are captured under a schema, and published in a LDAP or X.500 directory. Changes to the LDAP standard are managed by working groups in the IETF, and changes in X.500 are managed by the ITU. In computer networking, the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, or LDAP (ell-dap), is a networking protocol for querying and modifying directory services running over TCP/IP. A directory is a set of information with similar attributes organized in a logical and hierarchical manner. ... X.500 is the set of ITU-T computer networking standards covering electronic directory services such as white pages, Knowbot and whois. ... The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is charged with developing and promoting Internet standards. ... This article is about the location. ...


See also

The term informational self-determination was first used in the context of a German constitutional ruling relating to personal information collected during the 1983 census. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Pseudonymity is a word derived from pseudonym, meaning false name, and describes a state of disguised identity resulting from the use of a pseudonym (also called nym). ... IDsec is a mechanism that provides a digital identity (aka. ...

External links


  Results from FactBites:
 
Digital identity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (1260 words)
Digital identity refers to the aspect of digital technology that is concerned with the mediation of people's experience of their own identity and the identity of other people and things.
Digital identity also has another common usage as the digital representation of a set of claims made by one digital subject about itself or another digital subject.
A digital subject is an entity represented or existing in the digital realm which is being described or dealt with.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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