The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of self-sovereign identity in online privacy. Online privacy has been based on passwords protecting us through third party applications owning credentials. Biometrics and dual-factor authentication were introduced to increase privacy protections in centralized authentications. Federated identification provided less centralization for authentication. The latest generation of identity management introduces self-sovereign identity, using blockchain to create an independent digital identity.
Identity began with centralized certification from state authorities providing official certification, such as the driver’s licenses and birth certificates. Digital identity began with centralized organizations overseeing the validity of IP addresses and domain names. Soon to follow, user accounts and passwords grew to be defined personal identification. Self-sovereign identity uses decentralized identifiers (DIDs) to enable verifiable, decentralized digital identity and ties users to identities and certified credentials using blockchain.

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