ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is:
Non-profit, open source, non-proprietary
a unique persistent digital identifier for authors
Why have an ORCID?
Distinguished your work from others with similar names
Follows you throughout your career
Increasing requirements from journal publishers
Increasing requirements from federal funders on unique identifier usage
see also - https://info.orcid.org/researchers/
Getting started
Navigate to: https://orcid.org/
Click on: Sign In / Register
Click on: Register Now
Fill out the prompts, then create a password, then choose your visibility settings
It is recommended that you include a secondary email so that you this will always transition with you whomever you are employed with.