Five Lenses. One Tide. Explore each of tghe series in turn.

🔒 Trust, Truth & Privacy

Understanding the trade-offs between convenience and control. What’s real, what’s hidden, and what’s yours to control.
S1E4: Digital Identity: Owning Your Online Self
Imagine you’re applying for a new job, signing up for a loan, or even chatting with a new AI assistant. In all three cases, the systems you interact with already know something about you, maybe more than you think. They know what you buy, where you’ve been, and what you’ve clicked. Your digital identity, your online self, has become as defining as your real-world one. But while you carry your physical ID in your wallet, your digital one is scattered across dozens of companies, platforms, and databases. The question is no longer if you have a digital identity. Rather, the question is, who owns it. What is Your Digital Identity?At its core, your digital identity is the collection of data that represents you in the digital world. It includes the obvious things: your email address, passwords, social media handles. But it also is the less visible ones: your browsing history, online purchases, GPS pings, voice recordings, and even the rhythm of your keystrokes. Every time you log in, swipe a loyalty card, or post a photo, that identity grows a little richer. Together, these data points form a living portrait of who you are—or at least, who the internet thinks you are. In the early days, digital identity was fragmented. You had separate accounts for each site or app. Now, we’re moving toward unified identities, credentials that follow you wherever you go. Think about simple login buttons such as “Sign in with Google,” “Login with Apple,” or “Connect with Facebook.” These single sig…