From digital disillusion to digital trust

THE world at our fingertips, we wander around with our eyes glued to our phones. We flick through photos of hyperreal happiness depicted on social media - putting pressure on us from people we have not even met. We follow recommendations by algorithms hungry for clicks and engagement which amplify sensational stories with questionable facts. We find that technology celebrating human ingenuity to instil artificial intelligence into arrangements of chips and sensors all too often holds up the mirror to society's flaws and biases.

Despite our increased reliance on all sorts of devices, our trust in digital technologies seems to be waning in the light of these glaring defects of the digital economy. A recent white paper by the Institute for Management Development (IMD) and the St Gallen Symposium brought together experts from tech companies and international organisations to point out the most pressing areas of concerns as well as to develop ideas on how to overcome the "looming crisis of digital trust". Their conclusions are clear. It is high time to look up from our phones and check if we are still on the right track.

To bring back digital trust, the IMD white paper suggests, global digital governance must be built on two core principles: 1) the value extracted from the use of digital data should be fairly distributed and 2) there are effective risk mitigation frameworks in place.

For inspiration on how to govern digital applications, we might turn to processes and international organisations overseeing the underlying technology. Generation after generation, network technology has long been guided by an international collaborative effort to make it reliable, resilient, and secure. Standards-setting organisations, international certifications, and sophisticated testing procedures ensure trust in digital infrastructure.

These processes have been established, tested, and refined over decades. Technical and social compliance audits consistently define the provision of digital infrastructures. Legislative and regulatory measures specify the respective national or regional frameworks under which digital infrastructures operate. Across all these layers, trust is being built and constantly renewed.

DIGITALISATION

To date, the positive implications of digitalisation have surpassed the adverse impacts. Without an adequate digital governance system, however, we risk losing the ground we've gained. Just like how smartphones have made possible countless things which a couple of years ago were considered science fiction, digitalisation on the whole has helped to improve the livelihoods of millions. It will equally play a critical part in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations and limiting climate change.

We, individually and collectively, need to recalibrate the digital transformation towards trustworthiness. This requires education and empowerment of consumers so they can make informed decisions about how their data is being monetised and the trade-off between convenience and privacy attached to using devices and services. Ethics and security have to be baked into the design process of digital innovations. Privacy by design can be a first step towards achieving this objective.

Ultimately, a comprehensive approach will be required that can trace and govern how data seeps into new applications as more software now builds on artificial intelligence rather than deterministic ways of automation. Such an approach can contribute to a global code of conduct to prevent malpractice and data abuse; at the same time, agile legislation that can keep up with the rapid pace of change in digital technologies and their applications needs to be developed.

• The writer is vice-president, public affairs strategy, at Huawei