Digital Distrust: Assuring Security and Trust in Egovernment
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5931/djim.v15i0.8980Abstract
As we enter the Anthropocene for digital information, governments are constantly seeking new ways to ‘plug-in‘ populations and promote ease of access of government services. Dubbed ‘e-governance‘, this concept uses Information and Communicative Technologies (ICT) to create and expand e-channels of service access to populations through the transformation and improvement of technology (Bannister & Connolly 2012). In doing so, however, the ability for government to connect with populations poses both technical and normative challenges surrounding assurance, security, and trust. Although the Government of Canada, for example, states explicitly that encryption and secure-sending of data should provide citizens with an adequate assurance of protection, this relationship is dependent upon the trust of the citizenship it serves (Immigration and Citizenship Canada 2018). What should happen, however, if the government is seeking to provide this service to a group with which it is not perceived to have a fully-established trust relationship with? Can the government ‘create‘ trust through e-governance by highlighting access and transparency? This paper explores the theoretical frameworks of mutual trust and assurance which currently dictate the terms of Canadian e-government. Specifically, we explore both the normative elements of trust between marginalized groups and the government, as well as how policymakers use e-governance not only as a means of efficacy, but for explicit trust-building as well.
References
Assurance. (n.d). Ernst & Young. Retrieved from https://www.ey.com/ca/en/industries/government---public-sector/government-and-public-sector_assurance.
Baldwin, A., Mount, M.C., Beres, Y., & Shiu, S. (2018). Assurance for Federated Identity Management. HP Laboratories, 1-29.
Bekkers, V., & Homburg, V. (2007). The Myths of E-Government: Looking Beyond the Assumptions of a New and Better Government. The Information Society, 25 (5), 373-382.
Beldad, A., de Jong, M., & Steehouder, M. (2011). I Trust Not Therefore it Must be Risky: Determinants of the Perceived Risks of Disclosing Personal Data for E-Government Transactions. Computers in Human Behavior, 27, 2233-3342.
Bill C-46. (1985). An Act respecting the criminal law. Retrieved from https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/section-380.html.
Caldwell, N. D., Roehrich, J.K., & George, G. (2017). Social Value Creation and Relational Coordination in Public-Private Collaborations. Journal of Management Studies, 54(6), 906-28.
Canadian Digital Service. (2017). What We Do - Canadian Digital Service. Retrieved from https://digital.canada.ca/what-we-do/
Cankar, S.S., & Petkovsek, V. (2013). Private And Public Sector Innovation And The Importance Of Cross-Sector Collaboration. Journal of Applied Business Research, 29(6), 1597-606.
Colbert, Y. (2017). Identity-theft Victim Says Thieves Have It Easy and Federal Rules Must Change. CBC News. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/identity-theft-mail-forwarding-fraud-canada-post-1.4193216.
Colesca, S. E. (2009). Understanding Trust in e-Government. Inzinerine Ekonomika-Engineering Economics 3, 7-15.
Dutton, W., Guerra, G.A., Zizzo, D.J., & Peltu, M. (2005). The Cyber Trust Tension in E-government: Balancing Identity, Privacy, Security. Information Polity, 10(1-2), 13-23.
Filgueiras, L., Aquino, P., Tokairim, V., Torres, C., & Barbarian, I. (2004). Usability Evaluation as Quality Assurance of E-Government Services. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 77-87.
Governance and Quality Assurance. Paris: UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning. Retrieved from http://www.iiep.unesco.org/sites/default/files/brochure_higher_education.pdf.
Hill, W. C. (2015). E-Governance: Silencing Vulnerable Populations. Procedia Engineering, 107, 181-85.
Ireton, J. (2017). Canadian Digital Service Takes Startup Approach to Building Better IT for Government. CBC News. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/canadian-digital-service-recruiting-it-brains-prevent-phoenix-1.4445010.
Jackson, L. A. 2009. Biometric Technology: The Future of Identity Assurance and Authentication in the Lodging Industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 21(7), 892-905.
Livesey, B. (2017). Spies in Our Midst: RCMP and CSIS Snoop on Green Activists. National Observer. Retrieved from https://www.nationalobserver.com/2017/05/05/news/spies-our-midst-rcmp-and-csis-snoop-green-activists.
Meijer, A. (2015). E-governance Innovation: Barriers and Strategies. Government Information Quarterly, 32(2), 198-206.
Myeong, S., Kwon, Y., & Seo, H. (2014). Sustainable E-Governance: The Relationship among Trust, Digital Divide, and E-Government. Sustainability, 6(9), 6049-6069.
Papadopoulou, P., Nikolaidou, M., & Martakos, D. (2010). What is Trust in E-Government? A Proposed Typology. Proceedings of the 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1-10.
Roach, K., Carvin, S., & Forcese, C. (2017). We Need Real, Honest Debate on Bill C-59. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/we-need-real-honest-debate-on-bill-c-59/article37175837/.
Schuurman, D., & Tàµnurist, P. (2016). Innovation in the Public Sector: Exploring the Characteristics and Potential of Living Labs and Innovation Labs. Proceedings of the OpenLivingLab Days 2016, Montreal, Canada, 78-90.
Shulman, M. (2015). Demonstrators Across Canada Protest Bill C-51. CTVNews. Retrieved from https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/demonstrators-across-canada-protest-bill-c-51-1.2279745.
Simpson, K. (2016). Conservatives Took Payroll Training Responsibilities Away from Phoenix Creator IBM. CBC News. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/conservatives-took-phoenix-training-away-from-ibm-1.3779917.
Stefanova, K., Kabakchieva, D., & Borthwick, L. (2010). Innovative Approach to Identity Management Solution Development for E-government at EU Level. Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 8(2), 24-31.
Sugiman, P. (2005). 2. Memories of Internment: Narrating Japanese-Canadian Women‘s Life Stories. Diaspora, Memory, and Identity, 48-80.
Tolbert, C. J., & Mossberger, K. (2006). The Effects of E-Government on Trust and Confidence in Government. Public Administration Review, 66(3), 354-369.
Treasury Board Secretariat. (2016). Guideline on Identity Assurance. Retrieved from https://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=30678§ion=HTML.
Treasury Board Secretariat. Standard on Identity and Credential Assurance. Retrieved from https://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=30678§ion=HTML.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Papers published in the Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management must be the original, unpublished work of the author. Contributors are responsible for obtaining any copyright clearances required in relation to their work.
Authors submitting a paper to the Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management automatically agree to grant a limited license to DJIM if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication. This license gives permission for DJIM to publish the paper in a given issue and to maintain the work in the electronic journal archive. DJIM also submits issues to institutional repositories and Open Access repositories.
Contributors agree to each reader accessing, downloading, or printing one copy of their article for their own personal use or research. All other copyrights remain with the author, subject to the requirements that any republication of the work be accompanied by an acknowledgement that the work was first published in the Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management and that the DJIM Editorial Chair must be notified of any republication of a work first published in DJIM.
Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management
c/o School of Information Management
Faculty of Management
Dalhousie University
Kenneth C. Rowe Management Building
6100 University Avenue
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 3J5
Canada
Email: djim@dal.ca
Authors should recognize that, because of the nature of the Internet, the publisher has no control over unauthorized copying or editing of protected works.
