Advances in digital technologies are redefining opportunities around the world to develop new economic value, to govern and serve within more accessible societies, and to empower individuals. Legal recognition of identity, the ability to establish trust in who we are, is a foundational component of society, a powerful tool that confirms access to life-sustaining resources and services, alongside evolving opportunities: It is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Digital innovations in identity bring new opportunities to create transparency, fairness, and better-governed services. They also create the potential to distribute and interpret significant amounts of information about people and their communities.

The Turing’s work in trustworthy data systems is advancing applied research for data science, artificial intelligence, and privacy enhancing encryption that is delivering significant impact in the fields of healthcare, national security, finance, and criminal justice. It’s Trustworthy Digital Infrastructure for Identity Systems  project is further developing this impact with a transformative opportunity to mature collective appreciation for the design and development opportunities to be had, and the policy choices to be made in upholding trust as a systemic imperative for identity systems.

Understanding the different trust and security requirements is an essential step towards their appropriate, secure and independent use and functions. The ability to ensure trustworthy operations in users’ identity lifecycle management is often more than the narrow scope of security requirements and regulatory compliance, while technology in identity management is evolving faster than regulatory and security requirements. Thus, the ability to design and develop appropriate risk-based approaches calls for trust-related conditions embedded in the process.

About the event

This conference brings together prominent academics and key players in the field of digital identity from government and industry sectors to focus on opportunities in the assessment and development of trustworthy digital identity systems.

Outlined themes and key questions cover the driving influences, alongside the characteristics that can attest to whether these systems are deserving of trust. They also seek to reflect the social impact, cultural, societal and behavioural conventions that have a role to play in anticipating vulnerabilities for the people these systems are being set up to serve.

A special issue in Data & Policy - a peer-reviewed, open access journal published by Cambridge University Press - has been launched in tandem with this Turing conference. Selected authors will be invited to submit full papers to the journal.

The resulting collection of papers aims to bring together knowledge that will inform countries’ development of trustworthy identity systems, and positively influence the ecosystem of standards, the decisions of policy makers and the technologies that are taken forward.

Conference places will be limited to facilitate informative, interactive discussion on the day.

Call for presentations & papers

The Turing trustworthy digital identity conference is open to both stand-alone presentations and submissions (or presentation/article) from authors interested in contributing to the Data & Policy Special issue to be published in 2022. Presentation-only submissions from authors published in other journals will also be considered.

Questions to explore:

What is influencing the development of digital identity systems?

What are the essential factors of success in terms of user acceptance and adoption?

How are threats and risks evolving with the identity landscape?

What are the key considerations for ensuring the credibility of data processing?

How can or should the relative capacities of different systems architectures be assessed?

What is the impact of self-sovereign identity (SSI) on the trustworthiness of the identity lifecycle?

What are the considerations for openness, transparency and explainability of automated and AI based identity management?

How should cultural and socio-economic differences influence systems design?

Submissions are welcome across the following four categories with sample topic areas outlined to guide but not necessarily limit the scope.

Submit your abstract

The call for abstracts has now closed.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

The Alan Turing Institute has a mission to make great leaps in data science and artificial intelligence to change the world for the better, and recognises that to make such great advancements and help solve the world’s problems and challenges, we need to accurately reflect the world’s diverse composition and build an inclusive community.  

We encourage submissions from those from all backgrounds, genders, ethnicities and abilities, particularly those who are currently most underrepresented in the field. The Alan Turing Institute is committed to increasing the representation of female, black and minority ethnic, LGBTQ+, disabled and neurodiverse researchers in data science.

Key dates

Friday 6 August 2021- Deadline for all abstracts

Wednesday 15 December 2021 - Submission of full papers to Data & Policy

May 2022 - Publication of special issue in Data & Policy

Organisers

Amber Raza ( araza@turing.ac.uk )

Chiara Sbruazzo ( csbruazzo@turing.ac.uk )

Related content:

Trustworthy digital identity interest group | Research project: Trustworthy digital infrastructure for identity systems