A digital identity is a way a person is perceived online through the information posted about them. We can usually create our online identity by being aware and mindful of the things we post or do on social media. If you work for a company, for example, you may need to adjust your online identity in order to better fit the standards of the company’s guidelines, which would mean less miscellaneous pictures and more of a professional online identity. However, we cannot control everything that is posted online about us.
Sometimes others, be it friends or strangers, can affect our digital identity. Perhaps a friend tagged you in a rather scandalous picture that goes viral or you may have a police record from when you were young and did something stupid. In the event that something we may not want to be online actually is, we can try to take it down or removed, this is called the right to be forgotten. This should be a fundamental right in this day and age. We cannot control every single thing that is posted about us online, some of these things are untrue or outdated but can still have a negative affect on our daily lives.
Some people may say that the right to be forgotten is in direct contrast to our first amendment. However, someone could easily slander another and that person would be in the wrong, thus, we have the right to fight that. This would simply be another case of this, if something is online that can negatively affect us we should be able to take it down, or, at least, try to. As much as we want to, we will not be able to control everything online about us, the world wide web is much too large for that. We can try to find solace in the fact that, at least, we can try to maintain our digital identity and that we sometimes may be able to erase certain things off the web.
