Idea Center

In a world dominated by I.T. and ubiquitous identity accessible to the global Internet. Securing your digital identity is now important to retain credibility. The need is even higher for Highly Networked Individuals (HNI) as a single theft of identity can prove to be disastrous and require investment of time & resources to undo such theft. The damage to others can only be on a smaller scale, but damage nevertheless.

Finding your Digital Identity

Considering the above, one thing I find missing is, how do you find out if a prospective client or a prospective acquaitance or business associate has valid credentials when they contact you online? I was trying to find ways to help me out with the same problem.

 Click on the picture for usernamecheck.com which finds out whether your common username has been taken over by another person on any of the listed social networking websites.

The concern of one's own identity being used by another person has been steadily increasing. Here is a report from Pewter (2007) that indicates searches on one's own identity to confirm whether it is secure.

That brought me to the next question. Are there dedicated search tools that can inform the usage of an individual's user identity? That search led me here (2008). The Search Engine Journal lists too few tools revealing that there is definitely a gap in this market.

People describe the activity of tracking and managing one's own identity online as Online Identity Management or Reputation Management. The former appeals more to an individual identity and the latter to a corporate or a brand identity.

One of the functions that I believed would be useful was an online alarm system that could inform us whenever our digital identity or brandname or alias is in use. Check out this post from ClaimId who labels them as best practices.

What's Missing?

• A Dedicated Tool for Digital Identity Creation, Management and Tracking
• A Tool to verify whether an identity is valid (without the person using it having to use digital signatures for validation.)
• Legal assistance to prosecute "Identity" squatters (not just domain squatters.)
• Digital privacy management tools to ensure that some information related to our identity is kept private or to a select network only.

Why?

• Identity pervades computing space from the Internet to the Desktop to our Mobile phones. It is as important as our Social identity in itself.
• Digital Anonymity is not an option anymore as communication media have converged.
• Digital Identity can provide credibility for actual acquaintance, meetings and business activity when used appropriately.
• Many people have tried to avoid creating and maintaing a Digital Identity because of the ease at which it can be hijacked if managed improperly.

What's in it for a Startup?

• The dedicated tool for Online and Digital Identity Management with various levels of security could be an instant Web 2.0 business idea.
• Mobile applications that extend the functionality onto mobile devices will help in better identity management and tracking.
• Mobile applications that can protect identity theft in the event of theft of a mobile appliance.

Despite its importance, Digital Identity has too few tools for managing it today. This has to change soon. What better time to get things rolling that "now"?