all-in-one privacy solution":["Proton Unlimited jest wszystko-w-jednym rozwiązaniem prywatności"],"Black Friday":["Czarny Piątek"],"No ads. Privacy by default.":["Brak reklam. Prywatność w standardzie."],"People before profits":["Ludzie przed zyskiem"],"Security through transparency":["Bezpieczeństwo dzięki przejrzystości"],"The best Proton Mail ${ BLACK_FRIDAY } deals":["Najlepsze oferty Proton Mail ${ BLACK_FRIDAY }"],"The world’s only community- supported email service":["Jedyna na świecie społecznościowa- obsługiwana usługa e-mail"]},"specialoffer:limited":{"${ hours } hour":["${ hours } godzina","${ hours } godziny","${ hours } godzin","${ hours } godziny"],"${ hoursLeft }, ${ minutesLeft } and ${ secondsLeft } left":["Pozostało: ${ hoursLeft }, ${ minutesLeft } i ${ secondsLeft }"],"${ minutes } minute":["${ minutes } minuta","${ minutes } minuty","${ minutes } minut","${ minutes } minuty"],"${ seconds } second":["${ seconds } sekunda","${ seconds } sekundy","${ seconds } sekund","${ seconds } sekundy"],"Limited time offer":["Oferta ograniczona czasowo"]},"specialoffer:listitem":{"Create multiple addresses":["Utwórz wiele adresów"],"Hide-my-email aliases":["Aliasy hide-my-email"],"Quickly unsubscribe from newsletters":["Szybko anuluj subskrypcję biuletynów"],"Use your own domain name":["Korzystaj z własnej nazwy domeny"]},"specialoffer:logos":{"As featured in":["Opinie naszych klientów"]},"specialoffer:metadescription":{"Get an encrypted email that protects your privacy":["Uzyskaj zaszyfrowaną usługę e-mail, która chroni Twoją prywatność"]},"specialoffer:metatitle":{"Proton Mail Black Friday Sale - Up to 40% off":["Wyprzedaż Proton Mail z okazji Czarnego Piątku – uzyskaj do 40% zniżki"]},"specialoffer:newmetadescription":{"Get up to 40% off Proton Mail subscriptions this Black Friday. Find great deals on our secure end-to-end encrypted email plans.":["Uzyskaj do 40% zniżki na subskrypcje Proton Mail w ten Czarny Piątek. 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In the case of big tech, if you pay nothing, you get used. I quit using Gmail and switched to @ProtonMail":["Dostajesz to, za co płacisz. W przypadku przedsiębiorstw big tech, jeśli nie płacisz nic, zostaniesz wykorzystany. Przestałam korzystać z Gmail i przeniosłam się na @ProtonMail"]},"specialoffer:time":{"Days":["Dni"],"Hours":["Godz."],"Min":["Min"]},"specialoffer:title":{"And much more":["I wiele więcej"],"Safe from trackers":["Bezpieczny od elementów śledzących"],"Stay organized":["Dbaj o dobrą organizację"],"Black Friday email deals":["Oferty e-mailowe na Czarny Piątek"],"Don’t just take our word for it":["Nie musisz wierzyć nam na słowo"],"Make your inbox yours":["Spraw, aby twoja skrzynka odbiorcza była twoja"],"Our story":["Nasza historia"],"Transfer your data from Google in one click":["Przenieś dane z Google jednym kliknięciem"]},"specialoffer:tooltip":{"Access blocked content and browse privately. Includes ${ TOTAL_VPN_SERVERS }+ servers in ${ TOTAL_VPN_COUNTRIES }+ countries, connect up to 10 devices, access worldwide streaming services, malware and ad-blocker, and more.":["Uzyskaj dostęp do zablokowanych treści i przeglądaj prywatnie Internet. Obejmuje ponad ${ TOTAL_VPN_SERVERS } serwerów w ponad ${ TOTAL_VPN_COUNTRIES } krajach z możliwością połączenia do 10 urządzeń, a także dostęp do globalnych usług streamingu, blokadę reklam, złośliwego oprogramowania i wiele więcej."],"Easily share your calendar with your family, friends or colleagues, and view external calendars.":["Łatwo udostępniaj swój kalendarz rodzinie, znajomym oraz współpracownikom i wyświetla kalendarze zewnętrzne."],"Includes support for 1 custom email domain, 10 email addresses, 10 hide-my-email aliases, calendar sharing, and more.":["Zawiera obsługę 1 niestandardowej domeny e-mail, 10 adresów e-mail, 10 aliasów hide-my-email, udostępnianie kalendarza i nie tylko."],"Includes support for 3 custom email domains, 15 email addresses, unlimited hide-my-email aliases, calendar sharing, and more.":["Obejmuje obsługę 3 niestandardowych domen e-mail, 15 adresów e-mail, nielimitowane aliasy hide-my-email, udostępnianie kalendarza i nie tylko."],"Manage up to 25 calendars, mobile apps, secured with end-to-end encryption, 1-click calendar import from Google, and more.":["Zarządzanie nawet 25 kalendarzami, aplikacje mobilne, bezpieczne szyfrowanie metodą end-to-end, importowanie kalendarza za pomocą jednego kliknięcia z Google i więcej."]},"Status banner":{"Learn more":["Dowiedz się więcej"],"Please note that at the moment we are experiencing issues with the ${ issues[0] } service.":["Uwaga: obecnie występują problemy z usługą ${ issues[0] }."],"We are experiencing issues with one or more services at the moment.":["Mamy problemy z co najmniej jedną usługą."]},"Status Banner":{"At the moment we are experiencing issues with the Proton VPN service":["W tej chwili mamy problemy z usługą Proton VPN"],"Learn more":["Dowiedz się więcej"]},"steps":{"Step":["Krok"]},"suggestions":{"Suggestions":["Sugestie"]},"Support":{"Sub category":["Podkategoria","Podkategorie","Podkategorii","Podkategorii"]},"Support article":{"${ readingTime } min":["${ readingTime 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help?":["Jak możemy pomóc?"],"No, contact support":["Nie, skontaktuj się z pomocą techniczną"],"Please fill out one field after another":["Wypełnij pola jedno po drugim"],"Please make your selections":["Dokonaj wyboru"],"Proton account":["Konto Proton"],"Proton for Business":["Proton for Business"],"Thank you for your feedback":["Dziękujemy za podzielenie się opinią"],"What can we help with?":["W czym możemy pomóc?"],"Yes":["Tak"]},"support_modal_search_query":{"Search query":["Zapytanie wyszukiwania"]},"support_search_button":{"Search":["Szukaj"]},"support_search_i_am_looking_for":{"I'm looking for":["Szukam"]},"SupportForm":{"For a faster resolution, please report the issue from the Bridge app: Help > Report a problem.":["W celu szybszego rozwiązania problemu dokonaj zgłoszenia przez aplikację Bridge: Pomoc > Zgłoś problem."],"Information":["Informacje"]},"SupportForm:option":{"Account Security":["Bezpieczeństwo konta"],"Contacts":["Kontakty"],"Custom email domain":["Niestandardowa domena e-mail"],"Email delivery and Spam":["Dostarczanie wiadomości e-mail i spam"],"Encryption":["Szyfrowanie"],"Login and password":["Login i hasło"],"Merge aliases and accounts":["Scalanie aliasów i kont"],"Migrate to Proton":["Migracja do Proton"],"Notifications":["Powiadomienia"],"Other":["Inne"],"Plans and billing":["Plany i rozliczenia"],"Proton for Business":["Proton for Business"],"Sign up":["Rejestracja"],"Storage":["Przestrzeń dyskowa"],"Users, addresses, and identities":["Użytkownicy, adresy i tożsamości"]},"SupportForm:optionIntro":{"Select a topic":["Wybierz temat"]},"swiss_baseed_feature":{"Swiss based":["Ulokowany w Szwajcarii"]},"Testimonial":{"Awards":["Nagrody"],"Customers":["Klienci"],"Featured":["Wyróżnione"],"Go to testimonial source":["Przejdź do źródła referencji"],"Open source of award":["Otwórz źródło nagrody"],"Open source of quote":["Otwórz źródło cytatu"],"Reviews":["Opinie"],"Videos":["Pliki wideo"],"Watch on TikTok":["Oglądaj na TikTok"],"Watch on YouTube":["Oglądaj na YouTube"]},"TestimonialCategory":{"Awards":["Nagrody"],"Customers":["Klienci"],"Featured":["Wyróżnione"],"Media":["Multimedia"],"Reviews":["Opinie"],"Videos":["Pliki wideo"]},"Text":{"If you need help, check out our ${ supportLink }.":["Jeśli potrzebujesz pomocy, sprawdź naszą ${ supportLink }."],"The page you’re looking for might have been removed, or it could be an\nold link.":["Strona, której szukasz, mogła zostać usunięta lub link jest przestarzały."],"Your question may already have an answer in our knowledge base:":["Na Twoje pytanie może już istnieć odpowiedź w bazie wiedzy:"]},"Title":{"On this page":["Na tej stronie"],"Related articles":["Powiązane artykuły"],"Share ${ thisPage }":["Udostępnij ${ thisPage }"],"Switch to Proton Pass - Contact us":["Przejdź na Proton Pass – skontaktuj się z nami"],"Thank you!":["Dziękujemy!"],"this page":["tę stronę"]},"Tooltip":{"More information":["Więcej informacji"]},"tooltip_vpn":{"Access blocked content and browse 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Your online identity is hard to grasp: for some it’s the email address that you use for all your accounts, while for others it’s their Facebook profile or even a username on an online forum or multiplayer game world.
In this article we’ll give one possible interpretation of what makes up your online identity, as well as giving you the tools to protect it. After all, if it’s worth something to you, it’s probably worth something to online criminals, too.
There are a few ways to look at your online identity. One that likely springs to mind for most of us is a constructed identity. The most extreme versions of this are the avatars in online virtual worlds on platforms like Second Life or huge multiplayer games like World of Warcraft.
In all these cases, the environment you’re in lets you decide who you are, regardless of whether that has any relation to you in reality. You can be another gender, ethnicity, personality, whatever you’d like. You can even choose not to present as human.
Less extreme, and perhaps more relatable, is the identity you can construct for yourself on forums. Reddit is a good example, as it lets you create a unique username (known as a “handle”), which, if done right, should keep the “real” you shielded, meaning you can speak relatively anonymously on the platform.
You could even argue that most social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or even LinkedIn, let you create an idealized identity. On these sites, you can be whoever you want to be, up to a point. You can present yourself as more successful than you are, for instance, or even pretend to be less happy to get likes.
Internet persona vs. internet identity
However, in most of these cases, these identities are in some way or another constructed. There will always be a gap between you and your avatar in an online game, and you probably don’t like your job as much as you claim to on LinkedIn. This constructed image is what we’ll call a persona, and while it may be part of your personal identity, it’s not part of your digital one.
At Proton, we mean something a lot more tangible when we talk about your online identity — also known as a digital or internet identity. As more and more services move to the internet, your online identity will come to reveal as much as your “real” (offline) identity.
When you go to your local government to request a service of some kind, they’ll usually ask you to show a driver’s license, passport, or other official document to make sure that you are who you say you are. Slowly but surely, this is happening on the web as well. If you need something from the authorities, you’ll need to display your ID via webcam. Need to create an account to access a service? Enter your email.
In fact, pretty much anything you do online now requires you to submit your email address for it as a way to make sure you are who you say you are. In a way, you could claim that your email address is your online identity or at least serves as its anchor.
What’s an online identity worth?
To you, an online identity is invaluable. Your email address is your key to all kinds of services, from requesting government services to buying stuff online. However, it’s also worth money in other ways, namely to the corporations that run the internet.
Companies like Google, Meta, and others gather the data generated by users (such as the sites you visited, how long you visited them, what kind of content you liked or disliked, and even the type of device you use) and use it to target ads at them. This is the core of their business model — they make money by collecting and using your personal information.
An email address or username is one of the most valuable data points for this data harvesting. Though the email address itself isn’t particularly useful in most cases, since it acts as your online passport, it’s a convenient way to link all your data to you.
This data is also lucrative for cybercriminals who earn a living by cracking accounts and then selling the data they find or stealing credit card details and using them for their own ends.
Protecting your online identity
Your email address, and in some cases your username, is your online identity, or at least serves as the way to prove who you are for online services. If somebody gained access to it, they could ruin your online life — and probably your offline one, too. On top of that, Big Tech companies are using your online identity to make money without your consent or even knowledge.
This must change. Thankfully, there are several projects underway to mitigate the risk of losing control of our online identity and its associated information. One of our favorites is Solid(nowe okno), a project by Tim Berners-Lee, one of the inventors of the internet and a member of Proton’s advisory board. You could use Solid to put your data in small pods, each of which could be accessed only with your express permission.
As powerful and interesting a tool as Solid’s pods would be, it remains a possible future solution. However, you can take control of your online identity today. One of the best ways to protect your online accounts — and with them, your internet identity — is to use a password manager.
Password managers are typically available as a browser extension or as an app on your device. They remember your passwords for you and generate strong, random passwords whenever you make a new account. In fact, you probably already have experience with password managers, as every major browser now has one built in.
However, these password managers usually work to ensnare you even further in Big Tech’s ecosystem — something we encountered when we examined how safe Google’s password manager is. Practices like this led a group of scientists who met at CERN to found Proton and combat the overreach of these tech behemoths by developing apps and services that help you keep your data safe from prying eyes.
Proton Pass
One of the best tools we have when it comes to defending your online identity is Proton Pass, a password manager that puts your privacy first and foremost.
While keeping your email address safe from attack is an important part of keeping your online identity safe, it would be even better if there was no way to create a profile of you at all. After all, if neither corporations or cybercriminals can find you, they can’t go after your data either.
Enter hide-my-email aliases. This handy tool will let you set up a decoy email address that you can use instead of your own when creating new online accounts. Any emails the service sends will still arrive in your “real” inbox, but they won’t be able to tie you to it. Using aliases means your accounts can’t be tied to a single email address, thwarting any effort to create a profile of you using it.
By using Proton’s services, and Proton Pass in particular, you’re setting up strong boundaries between the real you and the internet you, meaning Big Tech can’t track you nearly as easily. At the same time, you’re also strengthening your digital identity by making it more credible.
If this sounds good, why don’t you join our mission to make the internet a more private place and create a free Proton account today.
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