There are a few questions to ask yourself about your identity online.

First off, how much of yourself do you want to reveal online? It's a sliding scale, of course; some folks reveal more than others. Consider the following list of personal information, beginning with relatively sensitive information:

• Your physical address
• Your phone number
• Your real name
• Your primary email address
• Your birth date
• Your age
• Your gender

What of that are you willing to reveal?

OpenID

OpenID is a cross-internet attempt to simplify and standardize login account information. With OpenID, you can establish your name, password, etc. at one site, then log in using that site's credentials at other sites.

You can use OpenID by entering the original site's OpenID URL (usually something like http://site.com/openid) when logging in at another site. You'll then be temporarily redirected to the original site, then back to the new site with all your account information.

Protecting Your Identity

It bears repeating: you can reveal as much of yourself as you want to. I routinely reveal quite a lot of information about myself online, and it's only benefitted me so far. But I'm comfortable with that.

One way to protect yourself: use multiple email addresses. You can create free ones at Yahoo!, GMail, and Hotmail. If a website asks for your email address, you can give them a "throw-away" email address that you've set up at one of these free services. If your address is ever compromised, you can abandon it.

Talk with your family about what you personally are willing to reveal online. Let them know how much they can say about you.