OLJ Task 15: Managing your Digital Identity (Module 5)

Think about online identity in relation to both individuals and organisations: What is important in terms of how we present and manage those identities online? What can we share with the online world and what should we keep private?

It’s important to maintain a clear distinction between your online and offline identities. When you’re online, you are exposed to a much larger group of people then in your offline life, and you need to take precautions to avoid any risks to your identity such as identity theft, avoiding sharing private information and suspicious links (Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, n.d.; Kaspersky, 2024; Feher, 2019). In addition to this, you also need to be aware of how your online identity relates to your professional life (Linder & Pasquini, 2018), and how you as a person will be perceived through your online presence, and how the risk to security might extend to your clients, customers and users that interact with you in an online space (Luo, 2010).

Linder and Pasquini (2018) provide a comprehensive resource on how to create and manage a professional identity personally. The benefits of being online are building networks, sharing ideas, building a reputation as an expert, and having more access to information (Linder & Pasquini, 2018, Digital Confusion, para. 03). In Chapter 4, they suggest focusing on creating a ‘brand’, an image that other people who interact with you online will perceive you as embodying. Some of the questions they suggest asking yourself when establishing your brand is are:

• When people talk about me when I am not present, what kinds of things do I want them to say?
• If I had to be known as an expert in just one area, what would it be?
• What kinds of professional values are most important for me to demonstrate on a consistent basis?

An important note is what to do when you encounter hostility online. How you respond to conflict can say a lot about you personally. Maintaining a professional demeanour when faced with online conflict is important, as others might judge you if you’re perceived to ‘overreact’ (Linder & Pasquini, 2018, Chapter 11).

Organisations can benefit from many of the same strategies, but you also need to consider the privacy of your users. Any data you collect online should be anonymised and not distributed beyond your organisation (Gstrein & Beaulieu, 2022). Organisations adopting online presences also need to consider local legalisation regarding privacy, and the role their websites have in protecting digital privacy (Bubukayr & Frikha, 2023).

References

Adjei, J. K., Adams, S., Mensah, I. K., Tobbin, P. E., & Odei-Appiah, S. (2020). Digital identity management on social media: Exploring the factors that influence personal information disclosure on social media. Sustainability, 12(24). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/su12239994

Bubukayr, M., & Frikha, M. (2023). Effective techniques for protecting the privacy of web users. Applied Sciences, 15(5). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/app13053191

Feher, K. (2019). Digital identity and the online self: Footprint strategies – An exploratory and comparative research study. Journal of Information Science, 47(2). https://doi.org/https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.1177/0165551519879702

Gstrein, O. J., & Beaulieu, A. (2022). How to protect privacy in a datafied society? A presentation of multiple legal and conceptual approaches. Springer Nature, 35(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-022-00497-4

Kaspersky. (2024). Top 15 internet safety rules and what not to do online. https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/preemptive-safety/top-10-preemptive-safety-rules-and-what-not-to-do-online

Linder, K. E., & Pasquini, L. (2018). Managing your professional identity online: A guide for faculty, staff, and administrators. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csuau/reader.action?docID=5583974

Luo, J. S. (2010). Managing your digital identity. Primary Psychiatry, 17(8), 29-31. https://web-p-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=0&sid=72fe92c1-038e-43ef-b826-5daf761b907c%40redis

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. (n.d.). Identity fraud
https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/your-privacy-rights/data-breaches/Identity-fraud#:~:text=For%20example%2C%20identity%20fraud%20can,that%20contains%20information%20about%20you.