Your identity has value, as do each of your online partial identities. When your partial identity is with your bank or a brokerage house, for example, it may have clear monetary value. When it is with a social networking site, such as Facebook or MySpace, the value may be less tangible but equally important to you. Simply by being an active Internet user, you may find that you accumulate tens or even hundreds of online partial identifies.
Identity theft, which results in a loss of control over one or more of your partial identities, is a natural concern; as the value of your partial identities grows, the information becomes more attractive to thieves. At the same time, because each of your online partial identities contains some information that may be very private, generally protecting yourself from a loss of privacy is often equally important.
