Institute for the Law and the Web, University of Southampton, UK Keywords: Digital identity Identity crime Identity management Big data Profiling Mobile identity Automated identification Identity surveillance Biometrics a b s t r a c t Modern identity is valuable, multi-functional and complex. Today we typically manage multiple versions of self, made visible in digital trails distributed widely across offline and online spaces. Yet, technology-mediated identity leads us into crisis. Enduring accessibility to greater and growing personal details online, alongside increases in both computing power and data linkage techniques, fuel fears of identity exploitation. Will it be stolen?Who controls it? Are others aggregating or analysing our identities to infer new data about us without our knowledge or consent? New challenges present themselves globally around these fears, as manifested by concerns over massive online data breaches and automated identification technologies, which also highlight the conundrum faced by governments about how to safeguard individuals' interests on the Web while striking a fair balance with wider public interests. This paper reflects upon some of these problems as part of the interdisciplinary, transatlantic 'SuperIdentity' project investigating links between cyber and real-world identifiers. To meet the crisis, we explore the relationship between identity and digitisation from the perspective of policy and law. We conclude that traditional models of identity protection need supplementing with new ways of thinking, including pioneering 'technical-legal' initiatives that are sensitive to the different risks that threaten our digital identity integrity. Only by re-conceiving identity dynamically to appreciate the increasing capabilities for connectivity between different aspects of our identity across the cyber and the physical domains, will policy and law be able to keep up with and address the challenges that lie ahead in our progressively networked world.
Public Sector Information (PSI) is a strategic resource without which government could not function. It feeds directly into policy formation and growing volumes of personal and cultural information are in constant demand, fulfilling a wide variety of personal and business needs. Whereas traditional conduits for the supply and publication of such material were confined to the printed page and broadcast media, digitisation has opened up substantial new means for delivering access to these resources. This 'access revolution' has itself created a new array of issues about what types of material should be captured to form the national archive and what intellectual property rights apply. One important aspect is the less discussed issue of policy for the maintenance and development of the public archive. Mass digitisation of the public record requires investment and secure maintenance if the archive is to be sustained. So what kind of regulatory structure needs to be established to facilitate this? Moreover, how far should private sector participation and expertise be utilised? On what basis should proprietary and user rights be granted where such collaborations take place? Finally, what message comes out of this as regards regulatory reform for libraries and archives?
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