Identity practice questions.

A student writes a restaurant review on a review site. The same evening her phone's operating system logs her location every few minutes in the background, and the fitness service uploads those records when the phone next reaches wifi. Which statement about her digital footprint is correct?

• The review is active and the background location log is passive
• Both entries are active because she chose to install both applications
• The location log is active because she agreed to it when installing
• Neither counts as a footprint until the data is shared onwards

Answer: The review is active and the background location log is passive

An active footprint is what the person deliberately publishes; a passive footprint is produced by the device or service while she does something else entirely. Agreeing to a permission once does not make every later upload an active choice, which is why passive traces are usually the larger and less visible half of an identity.

Aadhaar, the biometric identification system operated in India by the UIDAI since 2010, links a 12-digit number to fingerprints and iris images. A pensioner whose fingerprints have worn down is repeatedly refused authentication at a subsidised food shop. Which implication for identity does this illustrate?

• biometric enrolment data must be re-collected every twelve months
• recognition by the system becomes a condition of the entitlement
• the pensioner's identity number can be reissued by any food shop
• the system holds no personal data because it stores only templates

Answer: recognition by the system becomes a condition of the entitlement

Where a single identifier becomes the gateway to a service, the question is no longer who you are but whether the sensor recognises you, so a failed match reads as a failed identity. Manual workers and older people are the groups most often reported to fail fingerprint matching, which is why fallback procedures are part of the design question.

When paid verification was introduced on Twitter in November 2022, impersonation of well-known companies and public figures was reported within days and the paid rollout was quickly paused. Which change in what the blue marker meant best explains that outcome?

• it signalled that the account had been checked by a moderator team
• it signalled that the account owner had passed a biometric check
• it signalled payment rather than a checked identity
• it signalled that the account had reached a follower threshold

Answer: it signalled payment rather than a checked identity

The marker had worked as a shared signal that someone had checked the person behind the account; once it could be bought, it certified a transaction instead. The legacy markers awarded under the earlier process were only withdrawn later, in April 2023, so the two changes are separate events.

From 2025 the United Kingdom's Online Safety Act requires services publishing pornography to use highly effective age assurance before granting access. Which trade-off for identity does the requirement create?

• proving age can require disclosing more identity than the service needs
• only a passport or driving licence can establish a person's age
• the service becomes anonymous for every user once ages are checked
• age assurance replaces the service's duty to moderate the content it publishes

Answer: proving age can require disclosing more identity than the service needs

Age is a single attribute, but the ordinary ways of proving it, such as a document, a face estimate or a bank check, reveal a great deal more, so a rule aimed at one fact draws a whole identity into the transaction. Regulators therefore press for methods that return only a yes or no and retain no underlying evidence.

When a Facebook user dies, the profile can be memorialised, and since 2015 users have been able to appoint a legacy contact in advance to manage parts of the memorialised account. Which feature of digital identity does this arrangement address?

• a memorialised profile is deleted together with all of the content it contained
• an online identity outlives its holder, so control must be assigned in advance
• the legacy contact inherits the password and can post as the deceased person
• profiles of deceased users lose every protection because only living people can hold accounts

Answer: an online identity outlives its holder, so control must be assigned in advance

Memorialisation exists because a profile is a persistent identity artefact, not a session that ends with its user; someone must be authorised to tend it. The error is assuming ordinary account rules cover death: passwords must not transfer, yet the identity still needs a steward.

A forum member has posted under a pseudonym for years. The operator now requires her to display the name printed on her official documents before she may post again. A classmate says the requirement is about expression. Which key concept does the requirement touch most directly, and why?

• Identity, because the rule fixes which name stands for her, not what she says.
• Expression, because the rule decides which opinions she is permitted to publish on the forum.
• Systems, because the rule describes how the forum's account database is organised.
• Power, because the rule shows that operators may impose any condition they like.

Answer: Identity, because the rule fixes which name stands for her, not what she says.

Identity concerns how a person is represented and recognised; expression concerns what may be said. The policy leaves her content untouched and changes only the name attached to it, which is why real-name rules are analysed under identity rather than under its neighbour.