As people share and store more personal data online, and the UK's population becomes increasingly diverse, policy makers need to consider the implications that these trends have on identity over the next 10 years

Does your Facebook profile accurately represent who you are online? What about your LinkedIn profile? Or Twitter? What about your medical records or your cloud locker? Where does that leave your passport and driving licence? Instead of having a single identity, people have several overlapping identities which play different roles -- be it legal, professional or social. Even if you don't create your own online accounts, your families and friends may discuss you or post photographs of you online.

As a result, the emergence of hyperconnectivity is changing notions of identity in the UK. As people share and store more and more personal data online, and the UK's population becomes increasingly diverse, policy makers need to consider the implications that these trends have on identity, particularly over the next 10 years, according to a report -- titled Future Identities -- launched by Foresight this week.


The key driver of change is technology -- specifically the ability to be connected to the internet at all times. The report states that in 2007 just 17 percent of UK internet users were members of a social network, but this has since risen to 60 percent. Add to this the proliferation of devices and virtually unlimited storage capacity, the internet allows people to document any aspect of their lives, creating a huge store of personal data distributed across multiple platforms that can be mined by advertisers, the government, service providers and criminals.

As a consequence, the UK must be considered to be a virtual environment as well as a physical one; UK citizens are globally networked individuals. This hyperconnectivity can have a positive impact on migrant communities keen to keep in touch with their family and friends. However, it can also make the pace of social change more volatile. The report says that "the internet has not produced a new kind of identity, rather it has been instrumental in raising awareness that identities are more multiple, culturally contingent and contextual than had previously been understood."

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The report cites an increasing "social plurality" as another factor to be considered by policy makers. Changing patterns of immigration, the emergence of online virtual communities and shifting intergenerational dynamics mean that there are new life stages that are defined by attitudes and roles rather than age.

There has been a 20 percent increase in the number of adults between 20 and 34 who are still living with their parents between 1997 and 2011, meanwhile more people are finding themselves caring for older parents.


A third issue flagged by the report is the blurring of public and private identities, with changing attitudes towards privacy, particularly among younger people. The report warns that the proliferation of facial recognition and spatial tracking technologies could allow people to draw on personal information about strangers in public places, challenging the notion that we can be anonymous in public spaces. How does this affect people's right to protest?

The report explains that the foundation of English law is a liberal society where social identity is a personally defined and freely chosen individual possession. The rights and duties of British citizenship might be defined by the state, but otherwise the individual is seen as the owner of their identity. However, there are increasingly trends that might affect this principle. For example, what rights do individuals have to their digital identities after death, when their archives may become open to control by others?

The report is the product of a one-year Policy Futures project by Foresight for the Government Office For Science. It draws upon 20 evidence reviews, commissioned from experts, which explore how identities in the UK are currently understood and how they may change over the next 10 years.

The report makes a number of recommendations to policy makers. A key consideration is the rise of new crimes that are wholly enabled by the internet. The vast quantity of personal and financial data online leaves people vulnerable to criminal exploitation and identity theft. The report says that identity theft is "more than simply a manifestation of crime, because it uses part of an individual's sense of self and so is particularly disruptive and invasive for the victim." At the same time, however, there are also more opportunities for tracking and detecting criminal activity, through open source intelligence.

Other considerations include making sure that no one is left behind when it comes to digital literacy; individuals need to have the knowledge and technical abilities to take control of their own identities and be aware of how the information about them online could be used by others. Over the next 10 years, "Maintaining an online presence could become normalised to the point where refusing to participate in online media could appear unusual or even suspicious."

Furthermore, greater social plurality combined with a declining trust in authority and hyperconnectivity means that radicalisation and extremism may be more likely, as people find it easier to communicate with others who share their grievances. "Due to the development and spread of new technologies, mobile smart-phones, social networking, and the trend towards hyper-connectivity, disparate groups can be more easily mobilised where their interests temporarily coincide." On one hand, this could mean something as innocuous as a flashmob, but on the other hand it could play a role in mobilising rioters and troublemakers.


The report concludes that the government should take advantage of the increasing speed and connectivity of IT systems to understand what is happening in real time, and assess the effectiveness of policies.

You can read the full report here.

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