Christopher Bramwell, Chief Privacy Officer for the State of Utah, offered a global perspective on why digital identity requires governance that puts people first.

He described the risks created by the internet’s current model: identity fraud, impersonation, data exploitation and declining trust in institutions. With AI likely to make synthetic content and fraud easier to produce, Bramwell argued that the coming years present an opportunity to redesign digital systems.

Utah’s state-endorsed digital identity model is built around individual control. Under the approach, people are recognised as the owners of their own digital identity and should be able to hold and use verified information when they need it.

“We don’t want government or corporations to be in the position to be able to dictate who has a digital identity [or] when does that identity get revoked.”

Bramwell also argued that privacy cannot simply mean asking people to accept long terms and conditions. Utah is developing a “duty of loyalty” model intended to prevent high-value personal data from being used against an individual’s interests.

“If you do digital identity wrong, there is a lot that can go wrong.”

The keynote’s key message was that digital identity is not only a technical question. A comprehensive governance framework is needed to define responsibilities, prevent exploitation and ensure verified identity and data support individual freedom, trust and choice.