Singapore’s government services top Thales’ Digital Trust Index 2025

While there was a universal decline in trust for digital services, government organisations are the only sector where trust increased compared to last year, according to Thales’ 2025 Digital Trust Index – Consumer Edition.

Trust in government organisations increased from 37 to 42 per cent this year.

The tech company surveyed over 14,000 consumers across 14 countries about their online relationship with brands and services across 13 sectors, as well as their privacy expectations and how brands can earn their trust.

High trust in government services as the outlier

The report found that the government was the most trusted in Australia, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sweden and India.

Among those surveyed, consumers aged 16 to 24 were also more likely to trust the government.

“Citizens increasingly want access to digitised services, and by that same token rolling out these services helps governments increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve accessibility for citizens,” the report said.

Thales previously worked with Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) to roll out the digital driver’s licence that has been downloaded by over 500,000 Queenslanders.

“With core technology provided by Thales, supported by development and operations from local partners Code Heroes and Aliva, the QLD Digital Licence app is simple to use, secure, and designed with data security and user privacy in mind,” the report added.

The app included features like multi-factor authentication, integration with Queensland’s digital identity service, and built-in verification to ensure secure information exchange.

A notable feature of the app to ensure user’s self-sovereignty is its consent-based design, which allows the individual to control what identity data to reveal for the transaction, such as “proof of age”, which displays an “over 18” screen without exposing date of birth, address, or driving information.

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Data privacy challenge

Across all the sectors in Singapore, there was an overall decline in trust.

22 per cent of Singapore consumers who pointed to lower trust attributed this to their personal data being compromised the past year, compared to 19 per cent globally.

The report found that 85 per cent of Singapore consumers have abandoned a brand in the past 12 months due to concerns about how their personal data was being used.

Globally, when it comes to data protection, most consumers find that brands place too much responsibility on consumers to protect personal data.

“Consumers are more aware than ever before of online threats and the consequences of their data falling into the wrong hands.

“As cyber threats evolve, so does consumer scepticism, and brands must continuously adapt their security measures to stay ahead and protect or rebuild confidence,” commented Daniel Toh, Chief Solutions Architect for Asia Pacific & Japan, Thales, while speaking about the report findings.

Bad bots disrupting customer experience

On customer experience, at least 70 per cent of customers in Singapore experience some form of discontent with their customer experience.

Examples of disrupted customer experiences include being kicked out of an online queue, being presented with price fluctuations, or experiencing downtime on a website.

The report pointed to bad bots interfering with legitimate user traffic on unprotected sites by manipulating the customer purchasing process and degrading customer experience.

“Bot detection and management are no longer “nice to haves”,” as the report stated.

But the majority of the consumers (75 per cent) said that their confidence in a brand or service would significantly increase if it adopted and implemented technologies such as passwordless authentication, biometrics, multifactor authentication, and responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI).

“Deploying modern customer identity access management (CIAM), fraud reduction intelligence platforms (FRIP), generative AI (GenAI), and data privacy protection solutions properly, with optimising the customer journey as the primary design principle, will lead to better business and consumer outcomes,” said John Tolbert, Director of Cybersecurity Research at KuppingerCole Analysts.

Global cybersecurity consultancy, KuppingerCole, has recently named Thales as an Overall Leader in Data Security Platforms.

The 2025 KuppingerCole Leadership Compass on Data Security Platforms report assesses consumer ratings across product capabilities, innovation, and market presence.