Digital Identity: Enforcing Public Identity

I'm currently in Gatwick with Stowe, waiting for our plane to Amsterdam. Yesterday was a great success at the London Symposium on Social Tools (STES).

Continuing with my look into Digital Identity and preparing for the iDate Conference in two days, here's some interesting news from True.com. The notion of Projected versus Public Identity creates uneasiness and risk for many users on online tools. Often , individuals are left wondering if the individual they are reading about, chatting with, or otherwise engaging is who they say they are, or real at all.

The Online Dating world has been at grips for some time with these identity issues and has come up with a wide array of social and legal barriers that lower the opportunity costs of identity fraud. In the latest effort, from newly minted True.com, we're seeing a concerted legal effort to introduce background checks into the process.

True today announced that it is launching a state-by-state campaign in support of legislation requiring online dating services to conduct criminal background checks or to prominently disclose to its members if an online dating service chooses not to provide this safety-enhancing service. Already garnering strong support in the company's home State of Texas, Senator John Carona and State Representative Will Hartnett have joined True's safety movement as sponsors of the legislation.

Source: Online Dating News, "True.com Launches Background Check Legislation" via True Press Release

Looking back, historically, True is in fact NOT the only service that uses background checks, there have been many before. These issues certainly will come to dominate many discussions about Online Dating. Looking forward, as "profiles" become more and more a part of our connected lives and identities fly from the hip, we can only expect that there will be very serious social concerns stemming from the exchange and (mis)use of these identities.