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Your Identity is Valuable. That's Why They Want to Steal It from You

, by Oreste Pollicino - ordinario presso di Dipartimento di studi giuridici, translated by Alex Foti
It is estimated that one user in three is exposed to Internet fraud, perpetrated in various sneaky ways and leading to any number of possible abuses, from unfair marketing to identity theft. Mass digital abstinence could be the only way to force providers to heed EU regulations

Personal identity is the set of ideas and relational attitudes that characterize the projection of the self in social realm. It's our constitutional right to demand that such projection be faithful and unbiased. But if in the material world the only risk is malicious bias, in the digital world the risk is bigger, as unlawful appropriation of certain segments of our electronic identity is technically possible.
While one's own offline personal identity is intrinsically unitary, digital identity is inevitably fragmented and contingent, depending on the routes, traces, and preference taken during the navigation on the web, and thus can be cut into slices. This multiplicity of appearances leads to two forms, one physiological, the other pathological, of identity bias.
The former is a possible asymmetry between one's personal identity in the real world and one's own self as projected in the virtual world. Asymmetry is not simply schizophrenia between our online and offline selves, but it is also an opportunity to escape existing personal constraints in order to (virtually) rewrite one's own biography. Second Life is emblematic of this.
The latter has more damaging consequence for often unaware users, because it jeopardizes the privacy of web consumers.
The common denominator of our multiple and fragmented online identity is the set of our sensitive and personal navigation data. This is the real bounty of the Internet, but we are often so unaware of its immense value that we give it away for free. Personal data are the main source of the stratospheric revenues of web giants, and are the tools of the trade for the theft of identity perpetrated by Web 2.0 cybercriminals.
The traces, unknown but unerasable, of our data, preference, and attitudes are the primary materials for targeted online advertising, a source of immense profits often obtained at zero cost. Two caveats are in order: complete anonymity on the Internet is a chimera; don't give your personal data if you haven't yet read the (usually half-hidden) policy of Internet providers about the handling of your personal data.If the usage of our data is not transparent, you have two choices: to overlook the damaging consequences of giving away your personal data for your privacy and online identity, or renouncing, firmly and sternly, the service provided. Mass digital abstinence could be the only way to force web operators to take more seriously the (very advanced) European norms regulating the handling of personal data.
As far as theft of digital identity is concerned, it suffices to remind readers that, according to a study presented in Milan in January 2011, 29.5% of interviewees claim to have been potentially exposed to identity fraud over the last year.

From a technological point of view identity theft is perpetrated through trashing, which takes your data from your old, abandoned PC; phishing, false communications from banks; and, less widespread but already feared in the Anglo-Saxon world, vishing. This combines the idea of fishing with the technical characteristics of Voip: the perp simulates the call center of a bank and calls the unaware user with Skype, asking for his/her personal data. How do you protect yourself from vishing? You'd better walk to the bank, rather than doing your business with a phone operator.

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