Every day, often without even thinking about it, we share a multitude of personal data to make payments, prove our identity or access digital services. But do we really know what happens to our data once it has been collected? Can We Still Trust What We Don’t Understand?
Published on Sep 23,2024 at 10:59 AM | Updated on Sep 25,2026 at 10:45 AM

On the occasion of International Day for Universal Access to Information, let’s take a closer look at what happens to our data.

TRUSTECH is at the heart of the discussions taking place among stakeholders in payments, identification and digital security. These sectors are evolving rapidly, placing data at the centre of many uses and innovations.

At a time when technology is transforming our everyday lives, access to clear and understandable information is becoming an essential condition for digital trust.

 

More Personal Data, Clearer Information

Digital transformation has profoundly changed our relationship with data. When making an online purchase, authenticating ourselves or using a digital wallet, various types of information may be collected when we provide our details or carry out a transaction. This data can then be stored or analysed to secure a transaction, personalise a service or detect unusual activity. Data helps make user journeys smoother and services more reliable, but the growing volume of information can also make its use harder to understand.

In 2025, 181,000 billion gigabytes of data were created, captured, copied or consumed worldwide. This figure highlights the importance of providing clear information about how data is used. This is where transparency becomes essential. But what happens to our data once it has been collected?

It may be retained for as long as necessary for its intended use and shared with certain parties involved in providing the service, such as a payment or delivery provider. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) governs these practices by requiring organisations to clearly inform users about how their data is used, how long it is retained and the recipients with whom it may be shared. This information must be accessible and easy to understand, so that everyone can know what happens to their data and understand the rights they have.

As digital journeys become increasingly fast and automated, the way this information is presented is also becoming more important. It needs to be clear, accessible at the right time and adapted to the user. This clarity directly affects the level of trust placed in digital services. According to the CNIL, 57% of people who have experienced harm related to their personal data subsequently stopped using a digital service because they were concerned that their information might be misused.

This issue takes on a new dimension with the development of artificial intelligence (AI), which analyses large volumes of data to personalise services, detect fraud or automate certain decisions. Data can therefore be used to create profiles or feed into automated decision-making processes, making its use less visible to the user.

 

From Personal Data Protection to Digital Trust: A Challenge for the Entire Ecosystem

For payment and identification stakeholders, this evolution is particularly strategic. Trust is no longer based solely on the ability to secure a transaction or protect an identity. It also depends on the ability to explain what happens behind an interface, a payment or an authentication process.

New digital identity solutions illustrate this shift. They can enable users to share only the information required for a particular service, rather than all of their personal data. Digital wallets (including EUDI Wallet) are moving in the same direction, increasingly bringing together identity, payments and data management.

These new uses open up new possibilities, but also raise a key question: how can we give users greater control while keeping digital journeys simple and secure?

TRUSTECH explored this issue during its 2025 edition, with a conference dedicated to digital wallets and their role in managing data, identity and payments.

Round table at TRUSTECH 2025 featuring several speakers on stage talking about digital ID wallets, data orchestration, KYC, and payments in front of an audienceTRUSTECH 2025 conference dedicated to digital wallets and their role in managing data, identity and payments, with several international speakers on stage

Digital Trust as a Competitive Advantage

 

As digital services become increasingly widespread, organizations that clearly explain how they collect, use, and protect data are more likely to earn and maintain user trust. Digital trust is therefore becoming a key differentiator, just as important as the quality of the service itself. In this context, adapting to evolving user expectations means viewing transparency not merely as a compliance requirement, but as a genuine strategic asset.

For businesses, responding to this evolution therefore means considering transparency as a genuine strategic asset. On the App Store, for example, Apple enables users to see the types of data an app may collect and how it may be used. This approach demonstrates that transparency can also become part of the user experience.

 

Building trusted digital services now requires expertise in technology, cybersecurity, regulation, payments and identification to work together. It also depends on the ability to clearly explain how data is used and give users greater visibility over what they share.

To discover how these issues are shaping the future of payment, identification and digital trust technologies, join us at TRUSTECH. From 1 to 3 December 2026 in Paris, meet the players developing the solutions of tomorrow.