In this project, our team has worked on examining the way people self-curate the data they publish online and the way this defines their web identity. We have sought to understand the ways in which individuals cope with online demands for person-identifying information, and in particular how this leads some users to provide false or fabricated information.
Our work has documented a variety of reasons for why people provide misleading information online, including creative expression, hiding sensitive information, role-playing, and avoiding harassment or discrimination. Our work suggests that lying is often used for benign purposes and that it may be an essential strategy for people to maintain their privacy in an era which incentivises companies to ask for as much personal data as possible from their users.
