Progress Update on the Digital Trust Label

Almost going into the fourth and final quarter of 2021, we are working full-speed on the operationalisation of the Digital Trust Label. It is planned to officially present the label at the occasion of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in January 2022, precisely two years after the project launch. Until then, we are providing you with the most recent updates around the label and an outlook of the steps to be taken until the end of this year.

Pre-audits with SGS and test partners: Catalogue and criteria proved to be solid

We have conducted two pre-audits with two of our test partners and have one more scheduled for the end of this month. The outcome of the conducted pre-audits has shown that the Digital Trust Label is not an easy-to-get label, but one that requires in-depth documentation and procedures from the service providers for their digital service in question. Some findings regarding the audit process were already taken into account and adjusted in the procedure accordingly. The label catalogue also serves as a powerful tool to test the pertinacity of a digital service even with solid documentation in place. The test partners appreciated the opportunity to have their procedures challenged.

To conclude, the label can be rightfully awarded to those that withstand the rigours auditing procedure as well as it can disclose room for improvement to truly call a service trustworthy.

Exchange between our company test partners to learn and use synergies

An informal meeting among pre-audit participating test partners took place with the aim to exchange learnings and key findings from the process.

Our key take-aways from the meeting are:

• Positive feedback from the pre-audits and the findings thereof
• Efforts to prepare for the pre-audit are perceived as manageable and the (pre)-audit serves a useful tool to be challenged on current practices around the digital service in question
• Trustworthiness of the label is key, thus an audit / external verification makes sense and is appreciated
• Value of a label is depending on: Communication towards the user (easy to understand / user education) and a solid conceptual basis

The exchange proved to be insightful and helpful to the test partners and left a strong momentum as we are approaching the operational phase.

Digital Trust Label Visual

We are proud to communicate that the Digital Trust Label visuals have been finalized – we will reveal them in due time. As part of the logo conception phase, we followed the findings of the Global User Study that we conducted this year as well as embedded the feedback from an online user testing survey to ensure that the label is truly putting the user in the centre.

Outlook

In parallel to the pre-audits, we are finalizing the 3-layer click-thru approach of the label logo and a dedicated label website. The website will go live by October 2021.

Also, we are working on the contractual framework, finalizing all open processual questions around the label audit as well as communications to make sure that the label is easily understandable and thus, adding value for the user.