Digital Trust Label - Election of a new Label Expert Committee and partnership with SICPA

Nicolas Zahn • May 2022

Lec2022

The Digital Trust Label was successfully launched and awarded to several digital services in 2022. Many more will receive the Digital Trust Label in the following months. Building trust in a fast-changing digital world is a continuous effort. Hence, the Swiss Digital Initiative is already laying the groundwork for the next version of the Digital Trust Label. Based on an Open Call, the Swiss Digital Initiative has selected a new Label Expert Committee,bringing the Digital Trust Label to the next level. Furthermore, the Swiss Digital Initiative entered a partnership with SICPA to make the Digital Trust Label tamper-proof.

Geneva, 17. May 2022 – The Swiss Digital Initiative launched the Digital Trust Label in January 2022. The Digital Trust Label indicates the trustworthiness of a digital service, such as a website or an app, in a clear, visual and non-technical language that everyone can understand. Digital services are audited, based on 35 criteria along four dimensions: security of the digital service, data protection, reliability of the digital service and fair interaction with the users, which includes notifying users about the use of automated decision-making. The criteria catalogue was created by the first Label Expert Committee (LEC), under the leadership of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and further developed on the basis of feedback from several public consultations. The designed criteria serve as a basis for an independent auditing.

Strong expertise and interdisciplinary collaboration for a trusted Label

The mandate for the first LEC ended after two years in December 2021 with the creation of the first version of the criteria catalogue for the Digital Trust Label. Since digital technologies evolve quickly, continuously developing and adjusting the Digital Trust Label is a priority of SDI. The experts meet regularly, collect feedback throughout the year and draft recommendations for possible adjustments to the Label.

In an Open Call, the SDI received many high-quality applications and is proud to announce the following representatives from the areas of Civil Society & Consumer Protection, Public Sector and  International Organisations, Academia and the Private Sector, as well as experts with proven know-how and expertise in the four dimensions of the Label joining the LEC:

  • Marcel Blattner, Principal Data Scientist and Team Leader, ETH Swiss Data Science Center
  • Nikki Böhler, Director, Opendata.ch
  • Sophia Ding, Managing Consultant, Head Trustworthy AI & Responsible Tech, AWK Group
  • Maximilian Groth, Co-Founder & CEO, Decentriq
  • Michael Kende, Senior Fellow and Visiting Lecturer at the Geneva Graduate Institute, and a Senior Advisor at Analysys Mason
  • Rodolphe Koller, Editor in Chief, ICTjournal
  • Diego Kuonen, CEO, Statoo Consulting & Professor of Data Science, GSEM, University of Geneva
  • Patrick Schaller, Senior Scientist System Security, ETHZ
  • Mitchell Scherr, CEO, Assured Cyber Protection
  • Manouchehr Shamsrizi, Co-Founder, gamelab.berlin Humboldt-Universität’s Cluster of Excellence and Co-Founder RetroBrain R&D
  • Martin Steiger, Partner Steiger Legal, Co-Founder Datenschutzpartner
  • Tuulia Timonen, Head of PSC Service Excellence, Posti Group
  • Leila Toplic, Head of Emerging Technologies Initiative, NetHope
  • Charlotte van Ooijen, Associate Director Digital Government and Data, The Lisbon Council for Economic Competitiveness and Social Renewal

Niniane Paeffgen, Managing Director of the Swiss Digital Initiative: «We couldn’t be prouder to form such a highly qualified and interdisciplinary Label Expert Committee and are convinced that it will provide valuable perspectives and insights for developing the Digital Trust Label even further. Digital Trust cannot be defined by one organisation alone, but requires multi stakeholder collaboration.»

Tamper-proofing the Digital Trust Label together with SICPA

To further strengthen the credibility of the Label and make it tamper-proof, SDI is proud to announce a partnership with SICPA, a leading Swiss provider of secured authentication, identification, and traceability solutions, securing transactions, interactions and products across the physical and digital worlds. SICPA’s blockchain-based and cost-effective digital solution verifies the dynamic content of paper-based and digital documents by applying an unforgeable QR marking. The Digital Trust Label will be QR-marked accordingly and hence instantly verifiable by anyone using generic verification tools, such as web and mobile apps as of Q3 2022. Philippe Thevoz, Executive Vice-President eGovernment Systems at SICPA: «We are proud to collaborate with the Swiss Digital Initiative to make the world’s first Digital Trust Label tamper-proof with our digital solution CERTUS©. In an ever-evolving digital landscape, not only will customers and users of digital services be assured of the trustworthiness of the website or service they are using, but they will also be certain of the current state of validity of its Digital Trust Label.»

About SICPA

Market leader in security inks and leading provider of secured authentication, identification, traceability and supply chain solutions, SICPA is a long-trusted partner to governments, central banks, high security printers and the industry. Every day, governments, companies and millions of citizens rely on its expertise, which combines material-based covert features and digital technologies, to protect the integrity and value of their currency, personal identity, value documents, e-government services, as well as products and brands. True to its purpose of Enabling Trust through constant innovation, SICPA aims to further an Economy of Trust worldwide, where transactions, interactions and products across the physical and digital worlds are based on protected, unforgeable and verifiable data. Founded in Lausanne in 1927, headquartered in Switzerland and operating on five continents, SICPA employs about 3000 people.

Media contact

Nicolas Zahn

Senior Project Manager

Swiss Digital Initiative

+41 (0)78 817 23 42

nicolas@sdi-foundation.org

https://digitaltrust-label.swiss/about/#history

https://www.swiss-digital-initiative.org/digital-trust-label/