Digital Identity Frauds

A digital identity is information on an entity used by computer system to represent an external agent. That agent may be a person, organization, application, or device. The information contained in a digital identity allows assessment and authentication of a user interacting with a business system on the web without the involvement of human operators. Digital identities allow our access to computers and the services they provide to be automated, and make it possible for computers to mediate relationships.

Digital identity is now often used in ways that require data about persons stored in computer systems to be linked to their civil, or national, identities. Furthermore, the use of digital identities is now so widespread that many discussions refer to “digital identity” as the entire collection of information generated by a person’s online activity. This includes usernames and passwords, online search activities, birth date, social security, and purchasing history. Especially where that information is publicly available and not anonym zed, and can be used by others to discover that person’s civil identity. In this wider sense, a digital identity is a version, or facet, of a person’s social identity.