Can UB you?

There are many identities that a person can obtain. The most tangible identity is the physical body and the forms of interpersonal communication that it executes. There is a Master Identity that portrays and evaluates an individual’s identity by its distinct and unique characteristics. In the Online Community, an individual’s identity is highly manipulative, situational, circumstantial, an arbitrarily obtainable. There are many characteristics of an individual’s online identity that can inhibit, portray, conceal, deceive, or intercept information. Therefore, an online identity “plays a key role in virtual communities. In communication, which is the primary activity, knowing the identity of those with whom you communicate is essential for understanding and evaluating an interaction. Yet in the disembodied world of the virtual community, identity is also ambiguous. Many of the basic cues about personality and social role we are accustomed to in the physical world are absent.” The University at Buffalo’s online community is a highly interactive and abstract community. There are many, channels, servers, links, nodes, interfaces, and forms of accessing the community. In addition, an individual has an online identity that is required for accessing different facets of the UB network. What is significant to this identity is that it is constantly being recorded and analyzed while an individual is simultaneously accessing, using, and portraying different elements of this identity. Furthermore, UB has a rather secure and encrypted network, but there are still means of claiming or manipulating an individual’ UBID.

“In the physical world there is an inherent unity to the self, for the body provides a compelling and convenient definition of identity.” At the University at Buffalo this physical body is what conveys the prominent aspects of one’s identity. This identity is immediately recognized as authentic and can be analyzed by a variety of resources. First and foremost one’s identity is analyzed by the everyday interactions that they make. There is their physical appearance, their portrayed perceptual lens, their constant evaluation of knowledge and skill, and the interpersonal communication that one partakes in. This identity is far more concrete and accurately evaluated than one’s online identity.

“The virtual world is different. It is composed of information rather than matter. Information spreads and diffuses; there is no law of the conservation of information. The inhabitants of this impalpable space are also diffuse, and free from the body's unifying anchor.” The UB network can portray many elements of an individual’s online identity. An individual can interact, utilize, and communicate in various forms within the realm of their online identity. One can access the UB network internally or externally creating accessibility at any computer with an internet connection in the world. Once the network is accessed an individual can execute many programs and internet applications. The most simple and commonly used identity within the network is communicated via email through the webmail application. This identity can reveal the major one is in, the professors they have, people and organizations that they belong to or they communicate with, how one travels, what items they have purchased online, banking information, as well as the style of textual format and pragmatic information that an individual uses in syntax. Another identity that is available is attainable via MyUB. The find people application can reveal the fundamentals of one’s identity such as: name, UBITname, email address, major, occupational status, and office or residential location. In addition, one’s identity can be evaluated by their utilization of Ublearns. This also can provide the information and identity conveyed above, but pertains to utilization of different applications. One can reveal their identity through the Blackboard Academic discussion board forum. One can reveal how an individual interacts with others through computer-mediated-communication. An individual can reveal their knowledge and opinions on certain matters that would not be plausible within the classroom environment due to the dis-inhibitory effect. This also allows for a more on depth analysis of another’s perspectives, cognition, and response patterns, as well as their style of writing too. This forum allows for people to view tremendously more amounts of identity information than any other means of a UB internet application. A person’s grades are reflected on an array of UB internet applications. One can reveal their study patterns through utilization of the UB network and its applications. There is an enormous amount of information conveyed within the realm of the UB network and even its affiliated networks such as Facebook.

What is relevant to this topic of internet identity; is how secure is this identity? This identity can be obtained through information provided on Facebook, which was originally for intercollegiate communication and a private social community. Facebook is now a public community where information is easily obtainable by virtually anyone. UB has an outstanding engineering department and has an extremely encrypted network proving to be rather secure. On the other hand, how authentic is this identity? On the most extreme level, one can hack into the network from any where in the world, even on campus. Moreover, if one were to obtain access to ones identity information can altered, stolen, or impersonated. If a hacker had enough talent, he could hack into the UB network through a UB computer with another’s identity and acquire limitless information or even maliciously abuse and manipulate the network and its applications. In contrast, at the lowest level of identity theft or fraudulent use of the identity is quite simple. One can access the UB network by simple obtaining someone else’s username, person number, and/or UBIT password. This information is relatively easy for almost anyone to obtain. For instance, an extremely simple way to obtain this information can be executed via daily sign-in-sheets which provide name and person number. With this information alone, even the most profoundly computer illiterate individual can access and obtain a person’s “secure” identity.

In conclusion, an online identity can be willingly or unwillingly accessed. This identity can provide far more information about someone than their physical identity but has minimal authenticity. Even on a network as profound as the UB network, an individual’s information is not only being constantly monitored and analyzed, but can be falsified and manipulated on any level of an individuals capability to do so. With this in mind; who are you?