the present disclosure relates to a privacy - based representation of a user identity within an online system . a method for representing a user identity within an online system is provided , comprising : requesting a user identity of a user of the online system by a viewer ; retrieving a status of the viewer with regard to the user ; based on the status of the viewer , determining a representation of the user identity ; and providing the representation of the user identity to the viewer . furthermore , an online system and a data structure representing a user identity of a user of an online system are defined .