ABSTRACT
Few aspects of computer-mediated communication have been noted with more regularity than the issues of identity, anonymity, and the potential for online deception that lodges in the space between them. As observers ranging from Rheingold (1993) and Turkle (1995) to NightMare (2001) and McSherry (2002) have suggested, Internet technology has challenged us to reevaluate what we mean by the very concept of “identity,” to reconsider the ways in which identity is being created and recreated electronically, and, in some cases, to rethink the very boundaries of the human “self.” This is certainly true in some respects, and predicated on the perception of anonymity afforded by online communication, this allegedly wholesale reinvention of personal identity appears in both dystopian and utopian guises. On the one hand, dystopically, there is the specter of online deception, which ranges from identity theft
(Ihejirika 2004; Levin 2003) and cyberstalking (Anderiesz 2004; Harris 2003) to betrayal, rape, and even murder in MUDs, MOOs, MMORPGs, and beyond (Dibbell 1994; Lazlow 2003; Ravetz 1998), and from fraudulent claims to professional credentials (Donath 1999) to the debate over the ethics of disclosure in online research (Cavanaugh 1999; Ess 2002; Sharf 1999). Indeed, as an ethical concern, a technological problem, and a foundation for online deception and self-deception, lack of privacy on the Internet occupies a significant portion of the discussion about the future of electronic communications.
