2012 Confoo: Defining User Identity

Defining User Identity
True Identity VS Anonymity

Jonathan LeBlanc
Developer Evangelist: X.commerce
Email: jleblanc@x.com
Twitter: @jcleblanc

What We’re Going to Cover

The Foundations of Human Identity

Tribalism and Social Grouping

The Big Bag of Social Identity Fail

Experimental Identity Methods

X.Commerce (eBay Inc.)
http://www.x.com | @x_commerce

Human Identity: User Types

Anonymous Users Real Identity Login


Human Identity: Open Identity Programming

OAuth (1.0a + 2.0)
PayPal Access, Facebook, Twitter

OpenID (…and the upcoming OpenID Connect)
PayPal Access, Google, Yahoo!

BrowserID
Mozilla

Human Identity: Anonymous Users


Human Identity: Tracking Anonymous Users

There are a few common options

Tracking Cookie Local Storage



Program Overview

• On each page visited, track the URL

• HTML5 Local Storage as primary storage

• Cookies as secondary storage


Tracking Anonymous Users with Local Storage

var storeName = "visited";
if (typeof(localStorage) == 'undefined' ) {
//Local Storage Not Available
} else {
try {
var sites = localStorage.getItem(storeName);
sites = (sites === null) ? window.location : sites + window.location;
localStorage.setItem(storeName, sites + "|");
} catch (e) {
if (e == QUOTA_EXCEEDED_ERR) {
//quota exceeded
}
}
}

Tracking Anonymous Users with Cookies

function readCookie(name) {
var nameEQ = name + "=";
var ca = document.cookie.split(';');
for (var i = 0; i < ca.length; i++) {
var c = ca[i];
while (c.charAt(0) == ' '){ c = c.substring(1, c.length) };
if (c.indexOf(nameEQ) == 0){
return c.substring(nameEQ.length, c.length);
}
}
return null;
}

Tracking Anonymous Users with Cookies

var storeName = "visited";
if (typeof(localStorage) == "undefined" ) {
var cookieVal = readCookie(storeName);
var value = ((cookieVal === null) ? window.location : cookieVal
+ window.location);

var days = 1;
var date = new Date();
date.setTime(date.getTime() + (days*24*60*60*1000));
var expires = "; expires=" + date.toGMTString();
document.cookie = storeName + "=" + value + "|"
+ expires + "; path=/";
} else {
//Use Local Storage
}


Next Steps / Improvements

• Remove oldest results when storage fills

• Build categorization mapping prior to
storage to save space (more on this later)


Human Identity: Real Identity Users


Human Identity: Real Identity Sources

Sources of Real Identity

Social (perceived) Concrete (true)


Human Identity: BrowserID



BrowserID Source
<script src="https://browserid.org/include.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>

JQuery Source
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery.min.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>



navigator.id.get(function(assertion) {
if (assertion) {
$.ajax({
url: 'https://browserid.org/verify',
type: 'POST',
data:
'assertion='+assertion+'&audience=jcleblanc.com',
success: function(res) {
console.log(res);
}
});
});

Human Identity: BrowserID JSON Results

{
audience: "jcleblanc.com",
email: "nakedtechnologist@gmail.com",
expires: 1320081400987,
issuer: "browserid.org",
status: "okay"
}


Social Grouping: It’s Not A New Thing…


Social Grouping: Foundation in Tribalism

Tribalism started as a way to keep us safe

…it has lead to some horrible parts of history

but it is also a foundation of many of our social
relationships


Social Grouping: The Real Life Social Graph


Social Grouping: The Online Social Graph


Social Grouping: Group Types

Follower Type

Connection Type

Group Type


Social Grouping: Data Miners are Rock Stars


Social Grouping: Group Programming Primer

Program Overview

• Use all URLs from the previous program.

• Obtain content category for page.

• Categorize user interest.



Step 1: Obtain
Website Content



Step 2: Perform
Keyword Density
Search



Step 3: Weight
Keywords


Social Identity Fail: Personal Safety

When Social Discovery Impacts Personal Safety

“My privacy concerns are not trite.
They are linked to my actual
physical safety”
--Harriet Jacobs (Gizmodo)


Social Identity Fail: Privacy Concerns

When Making Things Easy Impairs Privacy

“Path Uploads Your Entire iPhone
Contact List By Default”
--Mark Hachman (PCMag)


Social Identity Fail: The Fine Line

The Fine Line Between Insightful and Creepy

“How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl
Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did”
--Kashmir Hill (Forbes)


Experimental Identity: WebFinger



Step 1: Perform Discovery

curl https://gmail.com/.well-known/host-meta



<XRD xmlns='http://docs.oasis.open.org/ns/xri/xrd-1.0'
xmlns:hm='http://host-meta.net/xrd/1.0'>
<hm:Host xmlns='http://host-meta.net/xrd/1.0'>gmail.com
</hm:Host>
<Link rel='lrdd'
template='http://www.google.com/s2/webfinger/?q={uri}'>
<Title>Resource Descriptor</Title>
</Link>
</XRD>



Step 2: Collect User Data

curl
http://www.google.com/s2/webfinger/?q=nakedt
echnologist@gmail.com



User Profile
http://www.google.com/profiles/nakedtechnolo
gist

Portable Contacts
http://www-
opensocial.googleusercontent.com/api/people/1
18167121283215553793/


profileUrl name
id formatted
thumbnail url family name
urls given name
photos display name


Identity Programming Core Concepts

Identity is more than just a login

Authentication is just the first step

Find the tool that:
– Has the raw data that you need
– Works with your business


Thanks! Any Questions?
http://slidesha.re/confoo_identity2

Jonathan LeBlanc
Email: jleblanc@x.com
Twitter: @jcleblanc
Github: https://github.com/jcleblanc

2012 Confoo: Defining User Identity

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