I am pleased to present this report on Powering the Digital Economy: Regulatory Approaches to Securing Consumer Privacy, Trust and Security prepared by the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

This report deals with the question of how to guarantee trust and privacy in order to power the digital economy. Although the world continues to embrace digitalization and digital solutions, trust in these solutions is decreasing, potentially limiting or even damaging the promise of the global digital economy. The report provides an outline of the value and the functioning of the digital economy, as well as requirements and considerations in terms of ICT and privacy regulation. It argues that in order to ensure continued and sustained growth, there needs to be more focus on privacy and security. In order to achieve the full potential, private actors, governments and regulators will need to work together to address the many challenges faced in creating an environment of trust and confidence in the digital economy.

The potential of the digital economy continues to grow, with more than 4.2 billion active mobile broadband subscriptions worldwide at the end of 2017, and more than 3.5 billion users online. Mobile technologies and services generated 5.4% of GDP across the Asia and Pacific region in 2017, amounting to USD 1.5 trillion of economic value added. Each year, more individuals acquire the means of accessing digital services through lower smartphone prices and greater and better quality network coverage. With this, the potential grows for more conventional services to shift to or to be further enabled in the digital world, as well as for new services to be created that can only exist online. Technology is there, and customers, attracted by lower service prices and convenience, are there. But consumer privacy, trust and security still remain major barriers to an ever-expanding digital economy.

There is no doubt that data has become of the most valuable commodities in the world, riding the wave of increased digitalization. Companies such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google dominate the top of the list of the world’s most valuable companies, leading some to proclaim that data is the new oil. While oil and data are both vital to the global economy in the 21st century, there are a number of key differences that make this comparison somewhat misleading.

A growing global dataflow and the expanding use of personal data in the global economy have led to an increase in the adoption and development of national and regional privacy laws and regulations. The principle motives for this are a wish to secure the fundamental human right to privacy, and the wish to protect consumers and promote competition. Whichever motive is behind national legislation, most modern privacy regimes find common origins in universal human rights, and in particular the right to respect for private and family life.

With personal data, when examining the issues of trust and security, it is important to remember that data is, at all times, owned by the data subject and that data has a value. It may be ‘leased’ to organizations, but the owner is ultimately the person who the data refers to. As with more traditional valuable assets, data is also subject to theft or malicious damage – and the more often the general public sees data breaches, the less inclined they will be to share personal data (a ‘tipping point’ was discussed earlier). With personal data being the lifeblood of the digital economy, its free flow is built on consent, and trust is crucial.

In this report, it has been demonstrated how privacy, security and trust work together to power and fuel the digital economy and help create innovations across the ICT sector. At every step of the value chain, across sectors, privacy and security need to be adopted, and worked into the entire process.