Naked on the Internet or hiding under a pseudonym and losing your online reputation

For two months now, I have been tormented by this dilemma. Before that, I created accounts under different nicknames, names... But after university, participation in projects and a "exposed" real name on the Internet, I began to think about it. We all know that now you either agree with the privacy policy and provide access to personal data, use the service, or refuse the rules of the service and do not use it at all. Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, VK and all other social networks, as well as many sites monitor, accumulate and trade our data. Using them in areas ranging from advertising, statistics, taste analysis, to terrorism, fraud or their detection.





Goal: to build your identity on the Internet with maximum benefit and with minimal risk to yourself and your loved ones.

It is worth thinking and weighing different options:

1. Open personality

Use your real name on all sites you use and avoid paranoia by turning a blind eye to privacy. Yes, most people do this now. This option is the easiest and most convenient, but not the safest. Yes, you will be easily found on Google. You will be more trusted on forums and various sites with a social element. You will be found by your lost classmates and co-workers to recommend you to others, and you will also be found by employers themselves.

But there is another side to the coin. You or your Internet activity can be easily found by thieves, scammers, spammers, enemies, or authorities. It is also important to remember that your full name is one for life. And while you can change it, it's not always easy (depending on where you live) and it's not always ethical. You have one chance. A mistake, and your personality is tied to it for life (the Internet will not forgive you - what gets there, it is unlikely that you will be able to delete it). The games you've played, failed courses online, or low ratings on Coursera, Codeacademy, or other resources – everything will remain there. Participating in dating sites, photos with indecent behavior (yours or those on which you are tagged), all this gives a negative assessment of your online personality or just information that can be used against you.

2. A completely hidden real identity

A fictitious name, nickname, pseudonym. The first thing that is lost is the connection between your name and Internet activity. Neither classmates, nor employers, no one will be able to check who you are and what you do by your name. This is both good and bad. The presence of a pumped profile with participation in projects or published software significantly increases the likelihood of getting a job after crossing several stages of selection at once, compared to the absence of such a profile or being a nobody on the Internet at all.

You can try to connect your real identity with your hidden identity by sending employers a link to your "alter ego" on your resume. But this approach, firstly, raises suspicions about you, and secondly, there is a risk that your pumped profile will be blocked because you did not follow the agreement and rules of the site. Today the site policy allows pseudonyms, and tomorrow it can be changed, and with this the possibility of changing your name will disappear. This may seem unlikely, but there is still a risk. 
It is also not clear how to participate in various contests, meetings and drawings. What name should I write? Hidden or real? In the hidden way, you are likely to violate the rules of participation in the competition, because they say that you will need to identify. And with the real one, you are no one on the Internet and your participation will remain unnoticed, without giving any bonus to your profile.

It's important to remember that no matter how carefully you hide, you still get important documents forwarded to Gmail and other inboxes. From large services, identity can be hidden only with great difficulty. But our goal is to minimize the risk, not avoid it altogether.

3. Two or more personalities

Here you can buy any desired look and change masks, observing clear boundaries and rules. Use one personality for career growth. For personal affairs, forums, something not quite legal (piracy, politics, immigration) another. With this approach, it's important not to forget about the boundary that separates your two personalities. This makes it uncomfortable and even sometimes will raise doubts – is this the person I should post this in? Or maybe both? Leading two personalities in parallel is not productive, and there is a risk of failure of such a "camouflage" when the boundaries are crossed or someone exposes you.

As a result

There are a lot of articles on this topic on various IT resources that describe the risks, dangers, and weigh the pros and cons of an overt or covert online identity. But none of them fully answers my question. After consulting with more experienced people and work colleagues, I could not find a solution. Some use services in a limited way, others hide under nicknames, and still others simply do not bother and let everything know about themselves. Take my former teachers, for example, everyone openly publishes everything under a real name. And how do Google employees solve this issue? What do celebrities or just millions of people do who openly publish their photos under their own names? From their posts, it will not be difficult to calculate contacts, place of residence and create an approximate picture of the person's condition. Then you can take advantage of a data breach on a website (HeartBleed...) or use one of the many methods of data theft, password cracking, penetration, phishing, etc. (By the way, FourSquare can track whether you are at home)

P.S.:
I wanted to ask a question on the toaster, but the description turned out to be too long... And what approach do you use?

Open personality

A completely hidden real identity

Two or more personalities

I don't know, I can't sleep now

Source: habrahabr.ru/post/221017/