Today I’ll be traveling to Geneva to attend the Global Digital Collaboration Conference which seeks to “foster wallets, credentials and trusted infrastructure for the benefit of all humans.” I want to make sure that whatever comes out of this discussion really does benefit humans, and is therefore rooted in human rights. I have spoken publicly about how we incorporate ethics into our standards and specifications in order to make sure we ground them in human rights and “avoid dystopia.” The notion of storing a government-supplied digital credential on your personal device has great potential, but could also lead to harm through increased surveillance, centralisation of trust, and widening of the digital divide. We need to design these systems carefully in order to prevent misuse and overreach and to protect privacy and dignity.