What Data Can Show

This video is an interesting romp through time, illustrating special effects and what can be shown visually. What does this have to do with digital identity? Several things:

• The world is not always as it appears
• Some people want you to see the world in a particular (non-real) way
• You can show the world who you are in a particular (real or non-real) way
• A personal identity is an interpretive dance between the person offering and the person accepting or using some information
• Not all information (like details of how the effects were created) needs to be revealed

Coaching moment: You are, at some points in time and in certain circumstances, the director, designer, and special effects creator of your own life. You can choose what to show, what to withhold, and what parts of you become the picture that others see. For example, you may not choose to talk about last night’s bar crawl when you’re at work, being a model employee. You may choose to reveal more information about your activities to your doctor, in order to assist an appropriate diagnosis. You may choose to portray indifference and anonymity to an annoying panhandler on the street.

What happens when someone else follows you around, blowing your cover? That’s what many companies are doing now when they collect and trade your data. These companies are saying, in effect, “we know who you are, you can not hide from us.” However, what they “know” may not be true or accurate. See, for example, What the Internet Knows About You – a site that says you’ve “visited” URLs that may have only shown up on your visited pages as advertising or invisible pixels. Or take a look at your annual credit card summary to see that your favorite local hardware store is categorized as a “specialty foods” (or some other clearly erroneous) category.

Why might you care about this? Many of these companies and related trading partners are making decisions about you based on this information. They are not asking you to verify–nor are you given the opportunity to refute–inaccurate or incorrect information. Is this the kind of decision making that you want to be steering your life? (I don’t.) This is a version of making decisions about your finances based on identity theft, or about your insurability based on someone else’s records.

What can you do about it? First: be aware of this practice. Choose to work with businesses that are collaborative and will help you verify your data. There aren’t many of them yet. As they show up in the marketplace, they will need your support. Second: order a credit report from any (each) of the big three data companies. Correct what’s wrong. Know what they say. Third: Talk with your friends about this. You may be interested to learn who cares and who does not. Ultimately this is your priority, not someone else’s.

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