Garlik launches digital identity ranking

gallery

Online identity management company Garlik today launched a service that claims to rank the digital status of 45 million Britons - as well as a smattering of global celebrities, including rapper 50 Cent, US presidential hopeful Barak Obama, and the Dalai Lama.

The new service, called QDOS, uses semantic web technology to rank individuals according to their popularity, impact, activity and individuality, according to Garlik, which was founded in 2005 by Mike Harris and Tom Ilube, both former executives at online bank Egg.

Anyone can use the QDOS website, currently in Beta, to check on their own identity score. Users who register can see the "shape" of their digital status too, which varies according to the weight of each of Garlik's four criteria. Consumers can use the information to manipulate their online footprint, for example by adding or removing information from social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook.

The new service is designed to raise awareness of digital identities, said Garlik chief executive Tom Ilube. The QDOS system is not commercial and there is no charge for using it.

However, Garlik expects greater awareness of the information we give out online to drive demand for identity management and protection services among consumers. "Users might ask us what services we have to enable them to manage their digital identities or to protect them," said Ilube.

But Ilube stressed that Garlik would not sell the digital identity information it gathers to third parties. "QDOS has to stand on its own, in a free and ubiquitous way, to raise awareness among millions of people that they have a digital identity." He also denied that the service would make it easier for fraudsters and cyber-criminals to target people with a significant online presence. "Criminals are looking for very specific information, not lots of information," Ilube said.

Garlik plans to have 250m QDOS scores online by the end of 2008 and eventually to hold 1bn online identities on its system.

Email to a friend

Print this page