What Is Digital Identity?

A digital identity is a collection of data points that comprise the characteristics, attributes, and activities that identify an entity. Along with authorization technology, digital identity verifies a person, organization, application, or device as both authorized to access certain assets or data and as the legitimate holder of that access. For example, when an employee logs on in the morning, the enterprise network recognizes a username and password combination associated with an employee as well as the hardware footprint of the PC that was issued to the employee. Those and other data points authenticate the employee so the system will grant access to the data and applications he or she needs to do their job.

Note that authorization is separate from identity management. In terms of standards, OAuth, which stands for Open Authorization, is an industry-standard protocol for authorization—granting access to information, websites, or applications. In contrast, OpenID, for Open Identifier, is a decentralized authentication protocol that allows entities to use a single set of credentials. Unlike OAuth, which focuses on authorization and granting access, OpenID is all about establishing an identity across different platforms. They work together.

For individuals, particularly in the social media and consumer spheres, a digital identity is similar to an online or a digital persona, sometimes called a digital footprint. While people are increasingly aware of their online personas, digital identities are also relevant to organizations, applications, and hardware.

For organizations, as an example, digital identities authenticate the parties involved in a B2B contract. That recognition may authorize use of electronic signatures and trusted document sharing, thus automating the contracting process and allowing access to delivery information, pricing lists, and ordering systems.

In an application-to-application use of digital identity, systems communicate using machine-readable credentials to verify identities as the application accesses services and data, often without human intervention. The increasingly popular microservices architectures that break software into small, independent code bundles that communicate via APIs illustrate this type of digital identity.

Hardware uses of digital identities include the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chips installed in enterprise PCs that can store cryptographic keys and certificates to establish the device’s—and by extension, an employee’s—digital identity. For smartphones, TPM-like functions include Android Knox and Apple’s Secure Enclave. Pacemakers, insulin pumps, smart credit cards, and employee IDs with chips also depend on digital identities.

Internet of Things (IoT) devices straddle the hardware/software divide, requiring digital identities to communicate securely with other edge devices and the online cloud platforms that collect and process their data.

Digital Identity vs. User

A digital identity and a user are related but distinct concepts. A digital identity refers to the electronic data that is associated with a person, often used for online verification, while a user is an individual who owns an account used to interact with digital systems or platforms.

A digital identity verifies that a user is the legitimate account owner. Depending on the situation, it may also refer to an entry in an identity management system that’s associated with the individual and used to verify who a person is. One user may have multiple associated digital identities used to gain access to different platforms. What’s relevant is whether the user has a digital identity that authorizes access to a specific system.

Digital Identity vs. Account

As with digital identity versus user, digital identity versus account is a many-to-one proposition. An individual may have dozens of digital identities, while an account represents a single point of interaction with a specific system.

Consider Colleen, an account manager with a regional retailer. Colleen’s digital identity isn’t tied to a single platform used by the company. It’s a collection of attributes, like password and employee ID, that she uses to authenticate with the systems she needs to do her job. Colleen’s accounts might include a cloud-based ERP she uses to check inventory, an HR app to log her time, and a CRM system to keep track of customers in her region.

Key Differences

Here’s an analogy: Think of Colleen’s digital identity portfolio as a wallet containing digital personas unique to her in the form of several credit cards, a library card, a few loyalty cards, and a chipped employee ID. When looking to check out a library book, the relevant digital identity is different from the digital persona she would use if she’s paying for groceries with a frequent buyer card, pulling out her employee ID to swipe into an entry kiosk at the workplace, or logging into the ERP to check the day’s sales numbers.

The librarian, grocery clerk, security guard, and cloud provider all recognize Colleen as an authorized user and know which account is relevant, but none of them can see her entire digital identity.

Key Takeaways

Humans, organizations, applications, and devices all have digital identities.
Digital identities combined with identity and access management technology prevent unauthorized users from stealing or manipulating data.
Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems can manage masses of digital identities and access requests efficiently, making them a must-have for large organizations.
Trends in digital identity technology are largely aimed at easing use of cloud services and automating back-end processes.
AI-powered systems can improve the accuracy, security, and performance of digital identity verification processes by very quickly analyzing thousands of relevant data points.

Digital Identity Explained

In the IT realm, digital identity refers to the data trail an entity generates when interacting with websites, enterprise systems, cloud software, and other online realms. A digital identity allows a person or device to be recognized and authenticated in the digital world.

Let’s look at how a smart security system a business might install depends on a variety of digital identities. The security setup uses connected devices such as cameras, motion sensors, and door locks that feed data to a central hub hosted by a cloud provider. The system can be controlled remotely through a website or mobile app. Some employees are authorized to enter at any time, while others may unlock internal or external doors only during business hours. Only security staff can log into the cloud hub to view sensitive information, such as video footage or entry logs.

Each person, service, and device associated with the security system has a unique digital identity established with a combination of factors, like a username and password, hard-wired device ID, MAC address, or cryptographic key. The devices in the security system periodically check in with the central cloud-based hub. A separate verification process confirms the device’s identity and that it’s authorized to connect and exchange data.

Once a device authenticates itself, the system establishes a secure communication channel. Depending on the device’s digital identity, the channel may be encrypted to protect sensitive data in transit and prevent unauthorized access. The digital identity of the device also establishes data provenance. That is, collected data is attributed to the device. This is crucial for applications where data integrity is critical, like a camera monitoring a safe or cash register.

Employees’ job roles determine their digital identities for purposes of interacting with the security system. Digital identity and authorization management prevents unauthorized people or devices from accessing the network and viewing or manipulating devices or data.

How Do Digital Identities Work?

Digital identities work by compiling information that uniquely identifies an individual, organization, application, or device online. A human’s digital identity data may include name, email address, employee ID number, social media profiles, purchase history, and identifiers for a smartphone and computer. For a device, say an IoT sensor, hardware identifiers like MAC addresses, unique chip identifiers, or cryptographic certificates issued by a trusted authority establish identity.

Trust is the result of solid digital identity management. For online systems to function, they must be able to establish with confidence that an entity—human or otherwise—is who or what it claims to be.

How Does Digital Identity Work with Identity and Access Management?

Digital identities are critical to identity and access management (IAM)—the technology and policy framework that governs access to resources—because they’re what enable IAM systems to create and activate new accounts, verify the legitimacy of entities trying to access resources, grant permissions based on identity and role, and then suspend or deactivate access as needed.

IAM plus digital identities let organizations manage data and system access in a way that balances security with giving people the tools to get their jobs done. IAM systems rely on the attributes associated with a digital identity to make access control decisions and enforce the policies an organization has put in place. Meanwhile, IAM features like single sign-on (SSO) simplify users’ digital identity wallets by reducing the need for multiple logins across different applications. Think of it as digital identity providing the “who,” while IAM establishes the framework and rules to control access.

What Makes Up a Digital Identity?

The elements that comprise a digital identity, sometimes called digital identifiers, vary depending on whether the entity is a person, an organization, an application, or a device. For humans, digital identity attributes are both inherent, such as eye color or place of birth, and user-generated, such as social media and email accounts.

A digital identity also comprises data about relationships among people, companies, devices, and locations. For example, a VP of finance may establish his identity with a username, password, and second-factor authentication app, while other factors, including the hardware fingerprint of a PC or smartphone and the physical location where the device is connecting from, will inform whether to grant access to a company bank account.

Attributes that comprise a person’s digital identity include the following:

Personally identifiable information. PII is data that’s directly linked to and can be used to identify a specific individual, such as name and date of birth; contact information including physical address and phone number; biometric data like fingerprints, iris scans, and even voice recordings; and identification numbers, such as Social Security, driver’s license, employee ID, bank account, or passport. What qualifies as PII can vary depending on context and local regulations. Certain types of PII, like Social Security and bank account numbers, are highly sensitive and require strict protection measures.
Personalization data. Digital identifiers that don’t inherently identify an individual but can augment a profile include IP address, current location data based on IP or GPS, device information, cookies and browser history, search queries, and online activity patterns.
Credentials. These are verification methods used to confirm identity when accessing online services or resources. They act like digital keys and include what you have—a fingerprint, authentication app on a smartphone, or physical ID card—and what you know—a password or code. Unique physical characteristics are the most secure way to verify digital identity, while a username/password combo is the least.
Digital certificates. Issued by trusted authorities, these electronic credentials can authenticate devices or applications for secure communication.
Online tracers. Also known as digital trackers or online tracking tools, these identity breadcrumbs derive from an individual’s online behavior, such as submitting reviews and ratings, posting content on social media platforms, and searching in a browser.

For nonhuman entities, like IoT devices or a microservice, digital identifiers might include the following:

Assigned identifiers. Hardware-based unique device identifiers (UDIs) are programmed in during manufacturing. Examples include MAC addresses, serial numbers assigned at the factory, and International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) identifiers for mobile devices.
Asset tags. Organizations might also assign unique digital identifiers, such as asset tags with a barcode or an RFID sticker affixed to physical equipment or inventory items.
IP addresses. Every website and device connected to the internet, including servers and IoT sensors, has a unique numerical identifier known as an IP address that identifies its location. IP addresses can be static or dynamic, changing based on a variety of factors, such as VPN connectivity. IP addresses allow devices to find and communicate with one another. But because humans aren’t good at remembering long strings of numbers, the digital identity of a website is expressed as a domain name, like www.oracle.com. When you type a website name into your browser, the Domain Name System (DNS) translates those letters into the corresponding IP address, locates the server where the website is hosted, and requests the data necessary to display the site on your screen.
Security certificates. Digital certificates issued by trusted public or private third-party organizations known as certificate authorities, or CAs, play a crucial role in the digital security landscape by verifying the identities of individuals, organizations, or websites. CAs issue digital certificates that contain digital identifiers, such as the certificate holder’s public key, their identity information, and the CA’s digital signature. Organizations or device manufacturers may obtain and install these certificates.
Physical location and connections. Finally, device identities can be corroborated through their associations with other devices or the platforms to which they connect. For instance, identifiers for a door sensor in our smart security system might be the cloud platform it transmits data to or the machine-to-machine connections it has to cameras and other devices in the system.

Why Are Digital Identities Important?

Digital identities are important because they’re the basis for authentication and authorization—without which there would be no trusted digital communication among people, organizations, applications, and devices.

And the more our lives and businesses move into the cloud, the more important digital identities become. The cloud offers a vast array of use cases for digital identities, mostly around how users and applications interact with cloud resources.

Key reasons digital identities are important include the following:

Collaboration. Cloud platforms facilitate collaboration between employees, customers, and external partners, but trust requires digital identities to establish that entities in the ecosystem are who they say they are. Once identities are established, for example, a marketing team might use a cloud-based project management tool to collaborate with multiple external design agencies. Digital identities provide secure access for each agency while restricting access to their projects.

Location flexibility. A key selling point for cloud services is that they’re accessible from anywhere. Digital identities make this flexibility possible by providing a way to manage users and accounts despite geographically dispersed locations. New employees or devices can be easily added to the cloud service with identity provisioning.

Reduced complexity. Digital identities simplify access management in enterprise and cloud environments. IAM and single sign-on (SSO) allow users to use all the cloud applications they need for their jobs with one set of strong credentials, because now they don’t need to juggle multiple passwords, authenticators, and accounts. That pays off for security.

Regulatory compliance. Many data privacy and sovereignty regulations mandate robust access controls. Digital identities help organizations comply by ensuring that only authorized users can see certain data sets and that access logs are accurate and complete.

Secure access controls. Many of us work almost exclusively in various cloud platforms that contain sensitive data and applications, yet there’s no way to swipe in with a chipped ID card, like with a physical office. Digital identities enable providers to authenticate the people and devices attempting to access their services. For example, many companies use cloud-based ERP suites that contain financial, inventory, customer, and other data. Digital identities help ensure that only authorized employees with the appropriate permissions gain access.

Who Uses Digital Identities?

In today’s online age, almost everyone uses digital identities in one form or another. Whether it’s creating an account on a social media platform, buying from an ecommerce site, logging into a cloud platform for work, or accessing online financial or healthcare services, digital identities have become an essential part of our everyday lives.

Major users of digital identity data include the following:

Retailers. For companies that depend on engagement, the digital identities of buyers enable personalization based on preferences and behaviors, meaning digital identities play a crucial role in enhancing customer relationships and driving growth. Employees’ digital identities govern their access to physical offices, company data, and software systems. Digital identities help healthcare providers, government agencies, and financial services firms enable the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of their clients’ important data while also enabling trusted communication.
Cloud providers. When your product is delivered virtually, knowing who’s on the receiving end is critical. Cloud providers of all types depend on digital identities to authenticate customers and granularly control access to information and resources. By implementing strong authentication measures, providers reduce the risk of unauthorized access and protect their—and their customers’—assets from cyberattacks.
Software. Applications need digital identifiers to deliver functionality, security, and a solid user experience. Authentication and authorization systems that use login credentials are the most fundamental in-application use of digital identifiers. In addition, applications often need to integrate with external services, and digital identifiers can be used to securely plug into cloud storage platforms or payment gateways using API keys or digital certificates associated with the application or account.
Devices. A wide range of hardware types depend on digital identifiers to interact with the online world. Using identifiers like a MAC or IMEI address, digital certificate, asset tag, or other assigned ID, smart devices from connected streetlights to crop monitors can operate independently, with minimal human intervention.

Common Types of Digital Identities

It’s essential that individuals and companies be aware of the diverse types of digital identities that they create and use to grant access. That’s the only way to maintain privacy and security while successfully navigating an increasingly digital landscape.

Common types of digital identities include the following:

Device identity. Our PCs and smartphones have their own digital identities that websites and cloud platforms use to allow or deny connections, data transfers, and access to online services. Device identities include unique identifiers such as IP and MAC addresses and hash codes calculated using factors including a device’s IMEI number.
Digital payment identity. With the rise of online payment systems like Venmo and ecommerce platforms where you can buy pretty much anything, digital payment identities have become more prevalent—and more tempting to identity thieves.
Email identity. Our email addresses often serve as primary user IDs in the digital world. Individuals with personal and work emails will decide which to use based on the system they’re looking to access.
Social media identities. The identities people—and often, bots—create on platforms such as Instagram and LinkedIn bridge the online and physical worlds. Social media identities may include names, profile pictures, personal and professional bios, employment and family information, entertainment preferences, and created content.
User/account identity. Whenever you create an account on a website, a cloud service, or an enterprise system, you are establishing a new digital identity.
Online reputation identity. Business entities are particularly watchful of their online reputation identities, which can include reviews, ratings, and comments and shape how potential customers perceive their goods and services. If you’ve ever chosen to skip a restaurant because of a negative comment, you have used an online reputation identity.

Digital Identity and Privacy

Digital identity and privacy are interconnected concepts for humans operating online. That digital identity wallet we talked about before contains items of value, including PII, account and credit card data, a digital trail of where we’ve been online, and more. Privacy is about controlling who has access to that information, and that comes down to data protection technologies and best practices.

For some companies and consumers, laws and regulations, like GDPR, give individuals a legal right to control the PII that comprises their digital identities and define how it may be used by third parties. Best practices to protect online privacy include regularly reviewing the privacy settings on social media platforms, apps, and websites associated with your digital identity to control who can see your information and what data is collected about you. Be mindful of the information you share online, and consider disabling location services on apps and websites unless you’re actively using them.

Privacy also requires use of security technologies and processes that protect digital identity.

How to Protect Digital Identities

Short answer: Be mindful of what data you put online, use strong passwords and multifactor authentication, and keep software updated. That holds true for both individuals and companies, which must also protect their own digital identities, the personal customer data they’re entrusted with, and what their connected devices are up to.

Best practices for individuals and organizations to keep their digital identities safe include the following:

Be aware of phishing attempts. Proceed with caution when it comes to emails, text messages, and social media posts that ask for financial or personal information or attempt to get you to click on links. Don’t enter your login credentials on websites if anything looks off. Related, download files only from trusted sources to avoid malware-infected executables that seek to steal personal data.
Be wary of public Wi-Fi. Avoid using public Wi-Fi for any activity that requires you to type in a username and password, and never use an open hotspot for online banking or shopping. If you must use public Wi-Fi, consider installing a VPN.
Calibrate your social media privacy settings. Targeted attacks are often enabled by information found on social sites. Regularly review and adjust your privacy settings on social media platforms to control who can see your profile and posts. Be mindful of what you share online as it becomes part of your digital footprint.
Monitor your accounts closely. Regularly review account statements and credit reports for suspicious activity, such as a micropayment that could be thieves checking if a credit card is active. This can help you detect digital identity theft.
Regularly update software. Restart your devices often, and activate auto-updates for your operating system, web browser, and applications to close security vulnerabilities that attackers might exploit to steal digital identifiers.
Use strong passwords and multifactor authentication (MFA). Create complex passwords for all your accounts and don’t reuse them. Enable MFA wherever possible—it adds an extra layer of security by requiring a second verification factor beyond your password, like a code from your phone or a security token. Consider a password manager to encourage use of hard-to-crack passwords.

For organizations:

Implement a comprehensive IAM system and policies. Select an IAM system that has deployment options to protect both cloud and on-premises workloads and the ability to provide secure access for contractors, partners, and customers as well as employees. Systems that offer unified identity management and single sign-on will save time and money and encourage use of strong passwords. Once a system is in place, set and enforce robust IAM policies. That means defining user roles, access permissions, and password complexity requirements. Implement MFA for employee accounts—especially those whose identities grant access to sensitive data or systems.
Institute an incident response plan. Develop a plan to respond to security incidents, like ransomware or a data breach, that could damage your digital identity. Write down the steps that each department will take to contain the incident, repair damage, and notify affected individuals.
Monitor your online reputation. Often, it’s the job of the marketing team to keep an eye on how your company is being portrayed on social media and online review sites. Everything written adds to your digital identity, for better or worse. You may not be able to avoid all negative reviews or comments, but you can control the organization’s response.
Perform regular security audits. Consider hiring a penetration testing firm to help identify and fix potential vulnerabilities in your systems. Enforce timely patching of software on all devices that access the network, not just servers.
Stress employee training. Regularly educate employees about cybersecurity best practices, including phishing awareness and password hygiene. This will help them protect their own digital identities while benefiting the organization.

For IT teams charged with ensuring secure applications and protecting the identities of connected devices, key steps to take include the following:

Add secure coding best practices. To minimize vulnerabilities from the get-go, prioritize secure coding practices including input validation, secure data handling techniques, and memory management. Consider AI-powered code analysis tools that can identify potential security weaknesses early in the development lifecycle, and conduct regular penetration testing to simulate real-world attacks and uncover exploitable vulnerabilities in your software before deployment.
Extend IAM to software and devices. Embrace the principle of least privilege—that is, grant software and connected devices only the minimum identity and access permissions they need to perform their functions. This reduces the potential damage if a device or application is compromised.
Use strong authentication mechanisms. That goes for both internal access to the network and communication among devices. Authentication can involve digital certificates, secure passwords, MFA techniques, or a combination but it all depends on trustable digital identities.
Regularly update credentials. Don’t let the credentials used by software and devices to access resources stay the same indefinitely. Regular updates reduce the window of opportunity for attackers who might gain access to a trusted account.
Lock down your communication channels. Encrypt all communications between software applications and connected devices. This protects sensitive data from unauthorized interception or access. Further, implement mutual authentication protocols, where both parties involved in an exchange verify each other’s identities before exchanging data. This ensures only authorized devices and software are communicating.
Minimize your attack surface. Implement a system to ensure both software and connected devices are updated promptly with the latest patches and firmware. Regularly conduct vulnerability scans on software and connected devices to identify weaknesses and prioritize security efforts, such as phasing out older and less-secure apps and devices.
Stay vigilant. Continuously monitor network traffic and device behavior for anomalies that might indicate unauthorized access attempts or compromised identities. One tech that can help is a security information and event management, or SIEM, system to collect and analyze data from all your devices and applications.
Leverage baked-in hardware security advances. For example, secure boot functionalities and secure enclaves—that is, a separate processing unit within the main chip, often featuring its own dedicated memory and processing cores—can add a layer of protection.
Don’t neglect device lifecycle management. It was one thing to implement a device lifecycle management program when everyone brought their PCs to the office. Now, with connected devices scattered everywhere, it’s both not so simple and also arguably more important to apply security protocols throughout the device lifecycle, from provisioning to decommissioning. As long as a device has a digital identity, it needs to be protected.

By following these best practices, individuals and organizations can significantly reduce the risk of digital identity theft and data breaches. Remember: Digital identity protection is an ongoing process, so stay vigilant and adapt your strategies as technology and threats evolve.

Digital Identity Trends

Digital identity is an increasingly important part of our personal and business lives, as we rely more and more on digital platforms and technologies for communication, commerce, and entertainment. As such, the field of digital identity is rapidly evolving. Areas to watch include the following:

AI and digital identity. As AI becomes more sophisticated, watch for advancements in areas such as sovereign identity, where AI could play a role in managing personal digital identity data, giving users more control over what information they share and with whom. Also keep an eye on continuous identity verification, where AI-powered behavioral analysis could enable more nuanced, and secure, verification processes that go beyond passwords. These technologies will improve by learning and adapting to user patterns over time.
Blockchain and digital identity. Blockchain can provide a secure, tamper-proof, and decentralized solution for managing digital identities and other sensitive personal information. Furthermore, blockchain gives people and businesses more control—users can create a unique digital identity that is stored on the blockchain and can be accessed and verified by third parties without the need to reveal sensitive information. With blockchain, users can easily verify their identities with a single digital signature, eliminating the need for multiple identification methods and reducing the risk of identity theft.
Digital twins. Also commonly known as a data double or virtual twin, a digital twin is a secondary, often anonymized, version of a user’s or group’s digital identity data. A business could use a top customer’s digital twin to customize a more personalized experience, or a digital twin of a market segment might be used to A/B test campaigns before launching them in the real world. The benefit is that real users’ digital identities remain protected.
IoT expansion. As more devices connect to the internet, digital identities become crucial for authentication, authorization, and management; setting up secure communications; and preventing unauthorized devices from accessing the IoT network.
Standardization efforts. There are ongoing efforts to normalize how nonhuman entities are identified in the digital world, with the aim being to create a more consistent and interoperable approach to managing device identities across platforms and applications. Examples include object identifiers, or OIDs, a hierarchical naming system for entities used in various applications, and EPCglobal IDs, or Electronic Product Code global identification numbers. These are unique codes, or identities, assigned to products that allow for tracking throughout the journey from manufacturer to consumer. With these unique identifiers, companies can quickly and accurately locate products, monitor inventory levels, and prevent counterfeiting and fraud. EPCglobal IDs also enable faster and more efficient recalls in cases of product defects or safety issues.

AI and Digital Identity

As companies customize large language models (LLMs) with their own data, they should be mindful of digital identity—after all, these AI entities exist within the digital space and interact with the world on your behalf via chatbots and other applications. Managing the digital identity of a generative AI system has three stages.

Training data. The massive data set of text and code an LLM trains on shapes how it responds to employee or customer prompts and questions. Ensure its answers align with your digital identity.
Iterative learning via interactions with users. Every interaction an employee, customer, or partner has with your GenAI through a query or prompt shapes future responses and interactions—it’s akin to a child slowly developing a distinctive identity based on ever greater interactions with the world.
Model updates and refinements. Data scientists and IT teams also improve the AI’s underlying algorithms and update its training data to better align with the company’s online persona.

A GenAI system’s digital identity isn’t human, but it’s also not a static application or device. As companies adopt more AI, they need a plan to ensure its online identity aligns with the outward face of the organization.

Manage and Secure Access with Oracle

Oracle’s identity and access management (IAM) solutions let you control who has access to your resources. Manage user access and entitlements across a wide range of cloud and on-premises applications. And you can be as granular as you need—specify who can access which resources, and how. Access is granted at the group and compartment level, which means you can write a policy that gives a group a specific type of access within a specific compartment, or to the tenancy itself. Manage policies, user and group credentials and passwords, MFA, and other digital identity elements via a cloud native, identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) platform and provide employees with federated and social logon options.

And Oracle helps your application developers embed IAM features including strong authentication, self-service management of profiles and passwords, and terms-of-use consent. With robust APIs, SDKs, and sample code, developers can easily add robust IAM functionality.

In today's interconnected world, our digital identities are a representation of who we are online. They make our lives more convenient by enabling us to access online services and conduct transactions easily. But the cost is heightened vigilance to protect our digital identities from theft, fraud, and misuse via strong security measures, such as two-factor authentication and regular monitoring of online accounts.

A cloud provider’s business viability depends on top-tier network, hardware, software, and data security. That includes advanced identity management, and it’s why cloud is leveling the security playing field, as we discuss in this trends report.

Access the ebook

Digital Identity FAQs

What are the four forms of digital identity?

The four forms of digital identity are human-centric—people and organizations—plus applications and devices.

From a human POV, digital identity focuses on the core attributes and data that make up an online persona, including name, email, preferences, and behavior, as well as how individuals and organizations manage their attributes, choose what information to share, and configure privacy settings.

A software- and system-centric view focuses on how applications and connected devices recognize and manage digital identities. Considerations include the information a system uses to identify authorized users as well as any unique identifiers associated with a device that allow it to be recognized and interact with a network or platform, like MAC address or IMEI. The digital identity of an online service or application can be proven with digital certificates or embedded code.

A comprehensive understanding of digital identity considers both user- and system-centric perspectives.

How is your digital identity created?

A person’s or company’s digital identity is created via an ongoing process of accumulating data over months and years. For a consumer, every time you sign up for a social media platform, shop online, or access any service that requires registration, you add a card to your digital identity “wallet.” Your browsing history, search queries, and devices you use add to your identity, as do your social posts.

Why do I need a digital ID?

A digital ID, also known as an electronic ID, is a form of identification that may be issued by a government, a company, or generated by an individual. They allow people to prove their identities online. A digital ID has a number of benefits. It can enable someone to securely access online services, such as a bank account, and prove their identity without the risk of personal information, like a password, being compromised. It may eliminate the need for physical documents for people who may not have access to traditional forms of identification, such as a driver's license or passport.