Keeping a low Qprofile
Further to my earlier posting, Online identity - does anyone care?, this morning I received a reminder from Garlik to go and access my QDOS profile. I signed in, created a userid and then I was asked to link the websites where my online persona exists - my facebook page, my Twitter page, my Tripadvisor page etc. As I added these, my QDOS score rose from Q900 to Q2766.
At that point I stopped. I have gone to great pains to hide my real identity as I use the 'Gammydodger' moniker to reveal myself online. With my help, QDOS was now joining these two identities together. I undid all of the links and my score dropped to Q505 and with it my heart rate.
Does a low QDOS equal safety online?
As I noted in Am I naked online? the generation that has grown up with the internet is able to maintain a separation between their online persona and their real one. I felt that QDOS crossed this line and merged the two personas.
I would be happy giving Gammydodger a QDOS identity, but I have not found a way to sign Gammydodger up for QDOS as he does not have a UK postcode. So with my score down at 505 I feel comfortable that I am keeping the online persona of Gammydodger separate from my real identity.
A couple more blog postings discussing QDOS are here:
- QDOS v ego ogle on Informaticopia (Dec 6, 2007)
- QDOS on the Think Tank for Everyday Democracy (Dec 13, 2007)
- QDOS from Garlik: global rank of digital presence on middledigit.net (Dec 5, 2007)
- Online Identity, does anyone really care on this blog with comments from people who tried QDOS