Share your thoughts on identity related topics - chance to win £250! NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

The internet has provided us with many wonderful opportunities. We can discover and learn, meet potential partners, we can buy and sell things to other people, turn to peers for advice, book holidays, read our favourite magazines, manage our finances, and so on. Unfortunately the systems and tools we use to make our lives easier are easily misused by people with the wrong intentions. We read headlines of dating scams, online fraud, people creating fake profiles, and children accessing age restricted content.

We can use our phones to make payments from our bank accounts, but not prove who we are. We still have to photocopy and email our passports to prove our identities to get things done like rent a flat, which simply doesn’t make sense. The list goes on and on…

Mumsnet partner, Yoti, have created a secure ID app which helps people prove their identity, online and in person - and are on a mission to fix the identity related issues that aren't right and don’t make sense. If you’d like to read more about how they secure your data and plan to make proving your identity simpler, faster and safer, please visit www.yoti.com.

Yoti would like to hear your views on some identity related topics - have a look at them below - and if your answer is defined by aspects such as past experience, the age of your children or your work then please add that into your post. Of course, there's no right or wrong answers and all views are welcome.

Example Topics:

• Age restricted content is open to anyone online (for example anyone - whatever their age can access all sorts of content with no restrictions)
• Online personas can't be trusted (for example - it's easy to pose as someone older or younger when interacting with other people online)
• Cost of fraud is more than the NHS budget (£144bn more money is lost each year to online fraud in the UK than spent on the NHS)
• We need to show numerous paper documents (e.g. a utility bill and two different types of ID document) just to access a new service

Add your comment and you will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will get a £250 John Lewis voucher

thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

Of course no online identity can be fully trusted. Someone may construct a new persona online, for fun or for fraud. Even a Facebook request or message from an 'old friend' can turn out to be an attempt to get close by an imposter.
Sometimes I'm tempted to go online as a very different person from me just to see what happens but then I firmly tell myself to get a life irl!

It's a problem.

It's also a problem that some of those asking for ID documentary support haven't caught up with the real world.. eg, asking for hard copy utility bills, when most come by email.

And that we have too many passwords so that if you are forgetful you lose track.

its so easy to create online accounts for pretty much most sites now its actually scary! the steps ive taken to avoid fraud is not opening online accounts!! i have a few social media accounts with my name misspelt and no family members on it !

I actually thought this was about gender identity. Feel a bit disappointed.

I beleive part of the problem is that policing isn't keeping up. A club I belong to had £50k stolen through fraud. They went to the police and they weren't interested. Yet if you steel a loaf of bread from a shop they would be streight on it. You'd have thought they would at least look at it.

I'd like to know what "Bank Level Security" is. Who has access to the servers? Are these engineers background checked? What are the controls around access/admin access? How are the backups stored? How is the database secured? Who is monitoring the logs?

Identity theft is often an inside job and I've seen countless instances of sloppy IT deployments, rushed through to meet an arbitrary deadline at the cost of security and testing. I'm not saying that Yoti isn't secure, but I'd need much more evidence of security controls before handing over my identity.

www.nbcnews.com/id/5015565/ns/technology_and_science-security/t/study-id-theft-usually-inside-job/#.WdWDNhOCzJw

It's just not feasible to have separate über securepasswords for everything (at least not for me!). So i have one "junk" email and I use that and the same password for all the things and sites that need passwords but don't actually have any important info attached to them (membership club, forums, shopping sites - I Never save credit card details to these- having to dig out my credit card each time also makes me less likely to impulse splurge on stuff I don't actually need) Then I have proper, secure passwords for the 4 sites that do have significance.

Caution interacting online is advisable, as it can be difficult to be certain of another persons identification.

As my son gets older (currently 12) and spends more time online, this is something I am most definitely worried about. I am constantly reminding him that people online may not be who they say they are and "stranger danger" is just as important online as it is in person. They do learn this at school as well.

Need to be very careful these days

I was hit by credit card fraud years before the internet existed, so I am wary, but also accept that the best way to do a lot of things is online.

A lot of the older generation won't do online banking or have email, but my life wouldn't function without those things.

My DC have been told that they can only have RL friends on games and snapchat etc, and I have got every possibly security measure in place on their gadgets.

I recently had my Gumtree account hacked. I spent ages figuring out what was to be gained. But as the hacker had put a BMW up for sale under my details I suppose it was to sell a dodgy car with me as the person in the frame. Luckily I noticed it and got it sorted quickly.

I probably see internet security in the same way I do dieting. Oh, a couple of sweets won’t matter in the long run is the equivalent of Oh, using a password I’ve used before won’t matter just this once.

Having so many passwords and PINs is such a faff, even though I know how important they are.

I would find this so useful as I was almost defauded by someone who had my email address and was trying to change my password and address on a online company account, The company rang me & told me about it . Lucky the company checked.

Not everyone online is who they say they are and this message needs to be taught to children early on. I am very reluctant to allow my 10 year old to have any social media profiles, as yet... I'm winning the war but I'm not sure for how long!

I'm extremely conscious of sharing too much information online for the fear that someone can use it for nefarious purposes. Even on sites such as mumsnet, I've seen posters piece together information on another poster based on other threads.

I don't really understand how the internet works and how computers can be hacked/data stolen. But I do try and be careful when I am on public internet networks and internet forums that I don't share any confidential information.

Age restricted content I think should be a must. I remember when I was younger my phone tried to restrict so much (my network provider) although I don't think they do this anymore. It was a hassle as it restricted things it didn't need to but now as a parent I quite like this feature and wish it could be tweaked so it worked for my child.

Showing 2 forms of proof of address is getting so much harder these days too with most billing being online! It's great but hard when you need it to access things.

I had a ridiculous situation with Playstation, where someone had set up an account and used my email address. Of course I emailed them to say that they had the wrong email and could they take it off their system - but they wouldn't, unless I could prove I was the account owner, which I wasn't, which was kind of the point... but yet all the emails were still coming through to me...

I know it's an easy thing to throw out there but the internet has now been around long enough, and students are taught about online safety from a young age, that people should be taken in far less.

Some of the absolute basics are to protect your devices with anti-virus software, NEVER click links in emails from people you don't know (and even those you do if they don't sound right) and never send out any pictures or messages that you wouldn't want to resurface in the future because when they're out there they're out there forever.

Staying safe on the internet needs to be on the curriculum from the very start of school. I am gobsmacked by how many intelligent, savvy people I know who have taken others at face value and only realised their naivety when it was too late. Hopefully our children, having grown up with all this, will know better.

I think my kids are reasonably clued up about online identity in terms of knowing that someone may not be who they say they are...but they have friends who are more vulnerable and beleive whatever they are told online e.g son's friend telling me that he's been chatting to a man who has a son the same age as him "so that's ok" !!!!

The other thing i do find frustrating but can understand why its necessary is all the paper docs needed for certain things - these days most utilities don't even send us a paper bill so it can be really hard to find all the relevant documents needed.

The whole issue is abig worry for me, it’s hard to keep up with all the risks.

I can understand why we have to show lots of paper ID documents to access a new service but can’t understand why we are given contactless cards which make it so easy for people to commit fraud. It doesn’t make sense!

Its a sad state of world today that people will lie cheat and pretend to be someone they not for a freebie or to 1 -up someone else

I'm very nervous about fake profiles and how easily online profiles could be manipulated and stolen. Makes me want to be more private and concerns me for my family. A secure ID app would really interest me!