Digital Trust

Digital trust is increasingly recognised as a cornerstone of the digital economy, particularly in industries handling the storage, use, and transfer of sensitive information. It is essential for fostering the adoption of digital technologies, economic prosperity, social cohesion, and business success. This study examines the current state of knowledge among industry stakeholders regarding the implementation, resource requirements, and evaluation of digital trust-promoting measures.

Background

Digital trust is essential for the successful adoption of digital technologies across various sectors, including health, education, and banking. It is defined by the World Economic Forum as the expectation that digital technologies and providers will protect stakeholders’ interests and uphold societal values. As technological complexity increases, digital trust reduces uncertainty, enabling users to engage confidently with digital services. This trust is crucial for social cohesion and economic prosperity in the rapidly evolving digital economy.

Description

Given the growing interest in this area, we conducted a literature and interview study to assess the current knowledge among industry stakeholders about implementing, resourcing, and evaluating measures to promote digital trust in Switzerland and beyond.

We conducted interviews with 16 stakeholders from various industries, based in Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. To complement the interviews, we reviewed 11 scientific publications on digital trust and incorporated a diverse range of grey literature and other relevant sources to develop a comprehensive understanding of trust within the digital economy.

Findings

Digital trust is a new concept for most industries, yet it is acknowledged as central to the digital economy. Digital trust is perceived by interviewees as a complex concept that can be promoted by a range of human-focused, regulatory and compliance-centred as well as government-supported activities. There should be a particular focus on building company cultures that promote digital trust, employee training to increase digital literacy, strategies to communicate the risks and benefits of digital services, and high technical standards to enable data security, privacy protection, and data traceability. Strong leadership at the executive level, including in the commitment of resources, is needed to drive change towards a corporate culture that promotes digital trust. As is the case for research on trust more broadly, evaluating and measuring digital trust is challenging. Future research should refine the concept of digital trust and develop actionable strategies to promote and measure it effectively.

Publication

Here you can find our recent publication: Gille, Mpadanes, Zavattaro, 2024, Digital Trust Report

Open Issues:

• Raising awareness among executives on digital trust and digital hygiene within organisations
• Developing robust evaluation methods to assess trustworthiness and digital trust
• Developing tools and methods to support industries in building digital trust
• Integrating digital trust building principles into governance and administration
• Facilitating knowledge transfer from global banking and cyber defence sectors to other industry.