QotW5: Online Identities - Emails
With the internet and technology so accessible and advanced now, it is so easy to create an online identity. In fact, one can have multiple identities. For me, just for email, I have a few identities, because one unique email address gives me one unique identity and since I have 5 email addresses so I have 5 email identities. But how true are we with the information that we provide these email services? Do we provide all the correct information of ourselves or do we just fake our information across.
Perhaps, the amount of truth that we put into email information depends on the purposes that we have for that email. For example, if I have created this email for school and work, the amount of information that I put into the email account about myself is definitely true and perhaps all fields of my personal information will be filled. But if this email is created for my gaming purposes, I’ll never put all my personal information in. In fact, that email account that I have created for gaming purposes would be quite anonymous.
As you can know, email accounts are set up so easily nowadays, spam email accounts are also set up easily too. People are abusing the use of email accounts! Compared to the physical world, it is relatively easy to pass as someone else online since there are relatively few identity cues (Donath, 1996).
Perhaps, the amount of truth that we put into email information depends on the purposes that we have for that email. For example, if I have created this email for school and work, the amount of information that I put into the email account about myself is definitely true and perhaps all fields of my personal information will be filled. But if this email is created for my gaming purposes, I’ll never put all my personal information in. In fact, that email account that I have created for gaming purposes would be quite anonymous.
As you can know, email accounts are set up so easily nowadays, spam email accounts are also set up easily too. People are abusing the use of email accounts! Compared to the physical world, it is relatively easy to pass as someone else online since there are relatively few identity cues (Donath, 1996).
This is one example of a spam mail that I have recently received. This lucky spam mail escaped in my spam filter and appeared in my inbox. But why do people spam especially through emails? Email accounts are free and easy to sign up and more importantly, you get the email account instantly. There is no waiting time. Email is also very cheap to send, in fact, if you are using those free accounts from Yahoo or Google, they are free to use but with limitations to the amount of mails you send in a day to prevent users from spamming. People spam for business, for popularity, for acknowledgement, for advertisements and the more lethal ones, spam viruses.
The first commercial spamming, “Green Card Spam”, appeared in March 5, 1994, where a pair of lawyers began using bulk Usenet posting to advertise immigration law services. The pair went on to promote spamming of both Usenet and email as a new means of advertisement. Within a few years, the focus of spamming and anti-spam efforts moved chiefly to email, where it remains up till today (“Spam (Electronic)”, 2007).
According to Wikipedia, ensuring a valid identity on an email has become a vital first step in stopping spam. An essential second step will be ensuring the entity has a good reputation (“E-Mail Authentication”, 2007). But I personally feel, it is quite a difficult task on ensuring valid identities in email, as I myself have several anonymous email accounts to protect myself from my personal information. But as long as I do not abuse the services of the email, I believe it’s alright as I’m protecting myself.
References:
Spam (Electronic). (2007, February 21). Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia. Retrieved February 23, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_mail#Messaging_spam
Donath, J.S. (1996, November 12). Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. Retrieved February 23, 2007 from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html
E-mail Authentication. (2007, February 10). Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia. Retrieved February 23, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_authentication
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