The Trust Files: The internet is dying – but the digital trust ecosystem can save it

By Andy Riley, Director of Culture and Engagement, Velvet

“The internet is f***ed; no exaggeration.” So says Evin McMullen, CEO and co-founder of Privado ID and Billions Network, in the second episode of The Trust Files. It’s brutal but she’s not wrong. The big question now is: how do we – ahem – unf**k it?

“Although [the internet] was founded on the premise of human trust and communication between machines, it is now overrun by bots and non-human actors,” McMullen says. “The challenge that we now face is creating a global, interoperable framework of accountability so we can return trust to the internet that we know and love.”

As the various interviews conducted to date for The Trust Files make clear, this is a complex task fraught with issues that go far beyond those outlined by McMullen. But a central idea behind the launch of the series was to understand where common ground lies so the digital trust economy can better define where those challenges lie, innovate appropriately, and collaborate where opportune.

Consolidated, our global experts identified four key areas that need fixing:

Loss of control and understanding

Digital services underpin our lives, yet people and organisations feel disconnected from how their data is used. Consent is reduced to opaque terms, repeated logins and intrusive verification practices, all of which erodes confidence and diminishes the user experience.

Fragmentation and complexity

Trust is breaking down because identity, compliance and verification rely on disconnected systems, duplicated checks and inconsistent rules across sectors and borders. The annoyance factor aside, this creates inefficiency and exclusion.

Inclusion and fairness

Digital trust is failing because systems often assume access to specific technologies, documents or levels of literacy, leaving both disadvantaged groups – and even digital natives (?!) –  struggling to prove who they are in higher-assurance contexts.

Governance, standards and accountability

In an ideal world, trust would depend on shared, interoperable technical and operational standards, with governments acting as referees on the side-lines. This means digital ecosystems must collaborate to create lasting accountability across platforms and jurisdictions.

All of which brings us back to McMullen’s dire warning about the way the internet is getting away from us: rising fraud, AI-driven abuse, and the growth of non-human actors have accelerated digital trust into an urgent, global challenge. Being able to distinguish humans and act at scale is critical to a healthy digital economy.

The fact that agentic is on our doorstep only creates greater urgency. This suggests the industry needs to focus on addressing the most fundamental aspects of digital trust before building ever more precariously on top of a status quo that’s already under strain.

Just five episodes in, The Trust Files is already making it clear that we’re reaching an inflection point, but that’s no bad thing. It should force many moving parts to act in unison because, one way or another, the interaction models between users and businesses will have to change.

If the digital economy is to flourish, our online experience needs to be based on trust. That means it has to be reconfigured in a way that works equitably for users and businesses.

How this happens can be through public and private consensus, or can be forced upon the industry through regulation. The former is what everyone (here) wants, otherwise we may see blunt legislative changes forced upon us. Australia’s move to ban under 16s from social media could well be the starter shots for something much bigger.

However, without mutually agreed frameworks for trust in place, the window for self-regulation will close. That is why we need a talking shop for those operating in the digital trust space to work through the big issues, map the blind spots and overlaps, and build a sector-wide plan.

By finding areas of commonality at a global level, the aspiration for The Trust Files is that it will frame progressive conversations that lead to real and positive change. And yes, I do appreciate this sounds rather grandiose, but every little helps.

Want to get involved?

To keep this important conversation going, we now need your opinions on the issues that matter most. Please get in touch if you have a proposal for what you think the next season of The Trust Files should cover, if you’d like to be personally involved, or have suggestions for someone you think should be.

The team is also eager to supplement the files with longer-form articles that respond to the themes outlined in the episodes. Please contact andy@velvetpr.biz to share ideas or request more information.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  digital trust  |  The Trust Files  |  Velvet