Transparency, the foundation of digital trust
The digitalization of society is changing the way we consume, share, work and exchange. This is not just a digital wave, but a new world in which the economy, politics and civil society are looking for their bearings. At the heart of this quest for trust is transparency.
Remember March 7, 2021. The Swiss people refused in the ballot box the project of creating a digital identity (e-ID). As a reminder, the e-ID aimed at an identification, certified by the State, through a single procedure with a large number of online services, instead of the current multiple passwords. In the physical world, this identity is under the responsibility of the State. What about in the digital world? The failure of this project in the vote illustrates the population’s distrust of technical solutions, outsourced to the private sector, accompanying the digital transformation of our society. Without trust, there is no growth.
Indeed, the e-ID project raises many questions: can citizens trust companies whose business model is partly based on the data economy? On the other hand, if the State must have overall responsibility for this digital identity, it cannot do everything itself. The solution may lie in services secured by the blockchain, a technology that allows to secure data and make it immutable. Guardtime, a digital security company founded in 2007 in Tallinn and partner of the Vaud-based security company SICPA in Prilly, has developed the KSI® blockchain which today secures all digital services of the Republic of Estonia.
Estonia’s goal was to deploy a technology that could satisfy the need to secure digital information against any intrusion or unauthorized modification and thus to trust it. And answer questions such as: how do we know if this state document is authentic or if this transaction is legitimate? Today, Estonia is the only country to offer fully digitized government services that require no physical or human interaction. “Getting married, divorced and selling your house are the only things you can’t do over the internet in Estonia,” says Mike Gault, CEO of Guardtime. How did we get here?
The need to trust
Guardtime’s history is closely linked to that of Estonia. The former Soviet country, which became independent in 1991, rebuilt itself completely from scratch to become the pioneer of digital security over the years. But in 2007, Estonia experienced a massive cyber attack. Guardtime was born to address this security issue. Its goal was to create a technology that could satisfy the need to be able to trust government data. Is the Estonian example applicable to Switzerland and federalism? SICPA and Guardtime believe so. Indeed, in 2020, Guardtime moved its headquarters to Lausanne, where it signed a strategic partnership with SICPA, paticularly in e-government solutions that go beyond the integrity of a digital transaction. Indeed, SICPA now offers the possibility of securing a decision-making process as well as any type of certificate, regardless of its format, paper or digital, such as a certificate of origin, a criminal record excerpts or the register of commerce, a vaccination certificate, etc., thanks to the CERTUS® service. Softcom has also submitted project applications to integrate these services in a first Swiss canton.
Elsewhere in Switzerland, other actors suggest the creation of a virtuous circle so that Switzerland can evaluate the risks and opportunities of technologies in a dematerialized participatory society. This digital responsibility concerns the State, companies, citizens and public policies. “Security, privacy and data sovereignty, supported for by the ballot box in the recent eID referendum, are at the heart of the applications proposed by SICPA, to enable public authorities to securely deliver the digital services expected by our citizens.” Marco Aloe, Director of Integrity Solutions at SICPA. This is how we will be able to build an enlightened and transparent digital society. The debate is open, but one thing remains certain: a wind of transparency must blow in Switzerland. Without it, there will be no trust. And our digital society desperately needs it.
