What is Modern Identity?

Remember when “identity” meant something tangible, like your full name, birthday, and maybe your Social Security number? Those simpler times are long gone. Welcome to the modern identity, a sprawling, ever-evolving collection of jigsaw pieces that dictate how the world sees you. Each piece of your identity puzzle is valuable, but most people don’t realize it. My Data Union can help you control, monetize, and protect it.

The Identity Puzzle

Modern identity is like a jigsaw puzzle, with the comprising pieces ranging from changeable to permanent attributes about you. Data aggregators use creative techniques to find and store pieces of your puzzle. They sell whatever pieces they can get their hands on to data brokers. Data brokers buy massive quantities of puzzle pieces about your and other consumers’ data puzzles, combine as many pieces as they can, and sell mostly completed identity puzzles. Data buyers spend fortunes buying pre-assembled identity puzzles so they can quickly and intimately know which apps are on your phone, how you use them, and where you use them.

The corner pieces to your puzzle are your permanent attributes, such as your fingerprints, DNA, birth date, and biological sex. These markers stick with you forever and have always been understood as part of your identity. Just like the corner pieces pop out to us when we search through a sea of puzzle pieces, data aggregators scour for your permanent data so data brokers know which pieces belong to your identity puzzle. Finding one of these pieces is a very valuable reference point.

The edge pieces are your semi-permanent attributes that rarely change—sometimes persisting for longer than a decade. How many of us are still using the same email address and phone number we used as teenagers? We could abandon them at any time, but in practice we don’t unless there’s a good reason, typically involving an increase in spam or fraud. Your phone number and email addresses now serve as barcodes that make it easy for companies to assemble or add to your identity puzzle. Instead of safeguarding these pieces like we would a Social Security number or fingerprint, we’ve been forced to print them on our foreheads. Collecting a few of your edge pieces can make it much easier to find related, adjacent pieces in your identity puzzle.

The smaller, less distinguishable center pieces are data about you that frequently changes, such as your devices’ IP addresses, job title, income, and hobbies. Also included here are the behaviors and actions you take while using apps on your phone; what you click, when you scroll, how long you linger on a post, what time you’re most active are just a few examples. Individually, these center pieces are difficult to assign to your identity puzzle, however, they reveal significant details about your identity puzzle.

Here’s what most of us miss: someone’s Social Security number or fingerprints are not required to identify them. These puzzle pieces are more valuable than others, corner pieces, allowing the assembler to quickly recognize where they fit and who the puzzle belongs to. But combine enough center pieces—your morning coffee order plus your commute route plus your shopping habits plus your email address—and the picture becomes crystal clear.

Nearly every digital service you use is a data aggregator collecting pieces of your identity puzzle.

Every time you search the web, you reveal a center piece. Stream a video while logged in? Then you highlight a few center pieces connected to an end piece. Drive to a grocery store with GPS? Use a rewards card? Check your email while at the store? Pay with your credit card? Scroll social media while waiting in line? All these things are center pieces or edge pieces that you are revealing and connecting about yourself.

The Data Economy Runs on You

Here’s the reality: your modern identity—that sprawling puzzle of data pieces—is the fuel that powers a multi-billion dollar industry. An industry that most people didn’t even know they were already participating in. Right now, your valuable property is leaking everywhere, and you have no ability to plug the hole. Dubious middlemen are capitalizing by collecting your data from unexpected places, using brazen tactics, and pretending to be you. They take your property and sell your identity or insights about your identity to anyone with money to spend. Not only do they profit from your property, but these middlemen also significantly increase your risk for identity fraud and other serious theft to occur.

The good news? There’s a better way to participate. More people are waking up to how the data economy works, and more importantly, demanding a say in how their data is used. My Data Union is building a collective of consumers who understand what modern identity really means and who demand a fairer data economy. A collective where you control, monetize, and protect your data yourself, not some middleman.

Want to get started? Sign up with My Data Union and become part of the solution.