Build
Digital Trust

to be trustworthy and earn trust, we must put people – and the things that are important to them – at the centre of every digital interaction.

What is digital trust?

We increasingly augment and experience our lives through our online digital interactions. Trust is the result of demonstrating trustworthiness, it means that we have sufficient confidence to take an action. Trust also implies a degree of uncertainty – if there is absolute certainty about the consequence of an action, then there is no need for trust. The degree of trust we need is related to the risk in the interaction. Digital trust means that we can feel confident that our online experiences will deliver what we expect, and no more or less than that.

Yet we’re increasingly fatigued and damaged by our online experiences. With little global leadership in digital trust, our privacy is being eroded, our actions captured, and our future behaviours predicted and manipulated.

Trust is a mutual construct, customers need trustworthy organisations as much as organisations need trustworthy customers.

It’s time to rethink how we all operate.

Digital trust puts humans first

To rebuild this trust, we must put people – and the things that are important to them – at the centre of every digital interaction. To do this we need to ensure that people understand and control the information they provide online (and that they have a meaningful choice about how data about them is handled by ‘digital deities’ like tech giants, banks, and other companies).

We need to empower trusted interactions. We must allow people to easily share only what they need to share, with who they choose, when they choose, and with verification built in.

To reduce the scourge of online scams, we must ensure that organisations prove who they are to their customers in every interaction, as they demand that customers prove who they are.

Trust through many sources

Digital trust demands that all parties - including individuals, governments, and organisations - are mutually committed to earning and maintaining trust by demonstrating trustworthiness. Each party must prove themselves worthy of being considered trustworthy for each transaction and over over time.

Decentralised trust systems in this context are built on the premise that we have many potential sources of trust. In most countries there are many established authorities of trustworthy information. Organisations such as governments, banks, education, and healthcare providers can be considered trustworthy sources. People can gain credentials from each these organisations, and share them when needed with others. The sharing is "decentralised", it does not need to involve the original issuer or any other third party. The only parties that need to be involved are the person who wants to prove something, and the organisation that needs to receive some proof.

We don't need a single source of trust for our digital lives - we need many.

Trust with, or without, identification

Many online interactions are built around the premise that the person making the request must prove who they are as part of the condition of satisfying the request. There are certainly some situations where your "identity" needs to be proven to a sufficient level before a service can be granted. However we all too often fixate on identity as if it were the solution to all our online ills. While sometimes necessary, it is often not necessary and its overuse creates risks. Rather than always having to prove "who" we are, we should expect to prove that we the right to a service. We should always provide sufficient our "credentials", we should not always prove our identity.

Trustworthy digital identities are essential, but not always necessary, and we need more than one.

Robust digital trust systems are:

Architecturally decentralised with many potential sources of trust.

Not reliant on a single user ID.

Built on existing trusted relationships and doesn't create unnecessary ones.

Do comply with open, global standards and enable open source software solutions.

Organic and transparent. Our ecosystems evolve organically through visibly governed processes and rules that transcend country and organisational boundaries.

Supporting physical processes, low tech solutions, inclusion and diversity.