How have digital landscapes transformed in the Covid era? Catch up with opinions from professionals in the field.

“Obviously, there’s been a lot of discussion and concern over how to ensure we can travel safely, mainly based around the proviso that we have tests which we consider valid and legitimate. However, we’ve seen lots of bad examples of testsbeing manipulated, photoshopped, or in another way fraudulently obtained, so the whole idea of binding identity to test results and then having them processed has definitely increased concerns.

Every year, SITA launches an air-transport IT survey and the 2020 report was carried out at the height of the pandemic in September and October last year. Even then, 64% of airports had made an investment in rolling out self-boarding gates, using both biometrics and ID. We’ve noticed that the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of biometric and self-service technologies and enabled touchless technology as well.”

“The pandemic has transformed many things in terms of digital identity. First, we were forced to go virtual in terms of work, and for this very reason a lot more people became willing to reveal their identities on digital platforms. To be able to work, socialise, or even get medical support, you had to share your identity online, otherwise others wouldn’t know who is behind the voice. People therefore began to share their identity more willingly.

The adverse part of this phenomena is the increase of cyber crime. For example, more people went online to do internet banking and more people fell victim to cyber crime, but still, it’s generally understood that we have to have our online identity known in order to exist in the ‘new normal’. People must therefore be more careful with passwords, company security, VPN, firewalls they use, etc., and each organisation has to make a deliberate effort to ensure that their own security, particularly where the identities of their patients or customers are kept, is secure.”

“I think from a tech company point of view, we can always operate fast as we’re agile. We can respond to new technologies and market demands very, very quickly. Regulators, by their nature, are slow. But we can’t do one without the other. We must get stakeholders such as airlines, airports, government regulators and tech providers working together collaboratively to deliver a safe and secure environment. Tech companies can certainly lead the way in showing the art of the possible, but we need to be very aware that regulators have many of the demands and that process is not just about opening borders, but the risks inherent in that.

“We always recommend that regulators should suggest the outcomes that they want to achieve. Then let technology deliver those, so regulators shouldn’t necessarily get involved in how they should deliver them. Let competition create an innovation to drive these outcomes; and to deliver outcomes that are not valid just in the next twelve months, but for the next three, five, or ten years.”

“If you’re operating in a customer space, you have to be able to assure them that you can secure their operationsthat have moved online. And yes, there might be some attacks, but if anything goes wrong, you need to be transparentand let them understand what has gone wrong, what are the effects, and what you can do to help them avert or resolvethem. You must try to protect the customers and build your own trust with them. The tech companies have to do a lot more.”

“I think if we talk about trust, it’s first and foremost a human quality and it is about relationships between people. We must remain being human centric, but of course, technology now plays a part. Companies like Daltrey absolutely play a role because we can help facilitate that digital relationship.

“However, there is also a place for regulation and standardisation. I think that it’s important that everybodyunderstands the rules of the game in terms of how our technology should be operating, and how it all interoperateswith each other – for instance encryption, cryptography and the treatment of personal information. I think that it’s very important to start with the human relationship; let’s not forget about that, and then let’s use the tools to facilitate this world that we live in.”

“I think the best way to define trust in the digital world is through a combination of different actors.

We do need governments and regulators to think from one perspective, as they can stand for the broadest interests. However, it would be incredibly foolish to forget about the other players. I think one of the things that characterises the digital world is that everything happens much faster and at a much bigger scale. That’s a key thing that the regulatorsmust think about, because typically, regulation has been a little bit behind the times – also for good reasons. But the biggest change is that everything is much faster and if regulation doesn’t adapt, it means that it becomes a stumbling block along the way.”