Digital identity and online reputation
What the web says about you and how to control it: the three identities, traces, searching your own name, the remedies (deletion, erasure, delisting, the data protection authority, image rights) and the professional presence to show.
- 27 cards
- 5 topics
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The outline, topic by topic
Each topic is weighted the way the exam weighs it.
- Concepts
- Questions
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- Scenarios
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A few cards from the deck
Digital identity: what is it?
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Everything about a person that can be found online: what they declare, what they do and what services infer from it.
It has three sources: declared identity (what you say), acting identity (what you do) and computed identity (what platforms infer). You mostly control the first; the third almost entirely escapes you.
An old article from a local site, which the site refuses to remove, comes first when your name is searched. What does a delisting request accepted by the engine do?
- The link disappears from results for a search on your name; the article stays online
- The article is deleted from the site that published it and can no longer be read
- The link disappears from all search results, whatever words are searched
- Your name is removed from the article on every site that has copied it
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The link disappears from results for a search on your name; the article stays online
Delisting does not touch the content: it only removes the link from the results of a search on your name. That is the difference with erasure, which deletes the content at the publisher.
… identity is what you say about yourself, … identity is what you do online, and … identity is what platforms infer from your activity.
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Declared identity is what you say about yourself, acting identity is what you do online, and computed identity is what platforms infer from your activity.
A like belongs to acting identity; a follower count or a 'recommended for you' is computed by the platform, not written by you.
Online reputation: what is it?
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The image a person or organisation gives of itself on the internet, as others perceive it from what they find.
It does not depend on you alone: a comment, a photo where you are tagged or a namesake in the results also shape it. A recruiter often looks at it before answering you.
You search your own name on a search engine for the first time before applying. What is the right move?
- Search in private browsing, on several engines, and note each bad result
- Sign in to all my accounts first, so that the results are more complete and personal
- Only look at the first page of results, since nobody reads any further than that
- Search once, with my first name only, without noting down what comes up in results
Show the answer
Search in private browsing, on several engines, and note each bad result
Private browsing limits personalisation, which would show you your own version rather than a stranger's. The noted addresses will serve for every deletion or delisting request.