In an increasingly digital society, trust in democratic processes, institutions, and identity systems is fundamental to maintaining social stability and governance. Digital democracy relies on resilient e-governance infrastructures such as secure and privacy-preserving digital identities, trusted online platforms for citizen participation and cybersecure critical government infrastructures. Ensuring these digital infrastructures’ security, interoperability, and robustness is essential to preserving trust in government, financial transactions, and online interactions.
This theme focuses on projects strengthening digital democratic resilience while ensuring compliance with regulatory frameworks such as eIDAS.
Projects
Privacy-Preserving Identity Solutions
eID privacy-preserving cryptography – innosuisse grant with SICPA and Alessandro’s lab support
Inference4All
privacy-preserving and cheaper usage of large models on office computer hardware w/o a data center
E-collect of Signatures
The project aims to design and implement a trustworthy e-collecting platform that addresses the challenges of signature fraud, misuse of personal data, and lack of transparency in the current initiative and referendum processes. By ensuring robust privacy protection, enhancing transparency, securing signature validation, and providing a hybrid approach that includes both digital and paper options, the project seeks to foster civic engagement and restore public trust in the democratic process.
Workshops
Interdisciplinary Ideation Workshop for Signature e-Collecting System in Switzerland
The transition towards digital solutions in Swiss democratic processes, such as e-collecting of signatures for initiatives and referenda, presents both opportunities and challenges. With increasing concerns about fraud, privacy, and data security, there is a pressing need to develop a trustworthy and resilient e-collecting platform. C4DT aims to contribute to this endeavor by organizing an ideation workshop that leverages interdisciplinary expertise and collaborative insights to identify the building blocks needed to establish a trustworthy and resilient signature e-collecting system in Switzerland and fortify its digital democracy.
Trainings
Hands-on Training for Engineers: Privacy-Preserving Cryptography for e-ID
In this hands-on workshop you’ll learn some of the cryptographic algorithms used in eID and how they improve the privacy of the users.