D2.13: Virtual Persons and Identities

D2.13 Virtual Persons THE MODEL: AN INFORMAL INTRODUCTION

In Sections and , we studied two typical uses of the term “virtual person”: the first one was related to avatars and new forms of identities in online games, while the second one came from the legal domain. In this current section, we will extend the domain of application of the term “virtual person”.

This section gives a first, informal introduction and description of a model based on “generalized” virtual persons. In particular, it motivates the introduction of an abstract layer in our model, to better describe new forms of identities in our modern Information Society. A formal description of the model will then be given in Section .

The two-layer model that we will introduce creates an indirection between acting subjects and their corresponding identifying information. Several new technologies introduce severe threats for privacy, especially when identifying information from different sources, or from a different point in time, is linkable. To protect privacy, the link between one person and its identifying information should be weakened. In our model, the indirection between acting subjects and their corresponding identifying information helps to understand and represent more faithfully the link between a person and its identifying information.