Kia ora Emily
What a month. Prime Minister Modi’s historic visit, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in 40 years, put digital public infrastructure (DPI) firmly on New Zealand’s agenda, with digital identity included among the areas of cooperation.
Perfect timing. Dr Pramod Varma, Chief Architect of Aadhaar and the India Stack, is confirmed to keynote our Digital Trust Hui Taumata, grounding the global DPI story in tourism, food provenance and transport use cases that matter to Aotearoa.
Our international speaker line-up keeps growing. Utah Chief Privacy Officer Christopher Bramwell will introduce State-Endorsed Digital Identity (SEDI) and explore what it means to flip the model on data ownership. Drummond Reed will also spend ten days in Aotearoa around the Hui, joining Dr Karaitiana Taiuru for the opening keynote and hosting a DINZ members-only power lunch in Auckland on Friday 7 August.
The week before, I’ll speak at the NZ CIO Innovation Summit on Know Your Agent – the next trust challenge for enterprises as AI agents begin acting on behalf of people and organisations. If Know Your Customer verifies the human, and Know Your Business verifies the business, then Know Your Agent asks: which agent is acting, for whom, with what authority, and how can that authority be revoked?
Our Digital Trust Survey 2026 is also in the field, with results to be announced first at the Hui.
Three weeks until we gather at Te Papa for Digital Trust Hui Taumata – I look forward to seeing many of you there.
Ngā mihi nui,
Andy Higgs
Executive Director,
Digital Identity New Zealand
DINZ Update
Digital Trust Survey 2026
Fieldwork is underway with our research partner Yabble for the Digital Trust Survey 2026 – the definitive read on how New Zealanders feel about digital identity, trust and control of their personal information.
Results are strictly embargoed until their release at Digital Trust Hui Taumata on 11 August. If you’re in the room you’ll be the first to hear the results.
Read more.
Drummond Reed in Aotearoa
Drummond Reed, co-author of the W3C Decentralised Identifiers standard and one of the world’s leading voices in decentralised trust, will spend ten days in Aotearoa around Digital Trust Hui Taumata.
DINZ members are invited to joing The Sovereign Stack: Keeping New Zealand Running When the World Doesn’t, a members-only power lunch with Drummond at the Northern Club in Auckland on Friday 7 August.
The conversation will explore what sovereign digital infrastructure could mean for Aotearoa, from digital identity and personhood credentials to AI, payments and data-sharing rails built on open, interoperable standards.
Register your interest.
Your ID, Your Way
Concept designs for Your ID, Your Way are now with members of the Trusted Credential Adoption Group (TCA Group) for feedback.
The initiative is designed as a single front door for trusted credential adoption in Aotearoa. Through the TCA Group, we are testing the vision, objectives and structure before collectively building out the content, use cases and adoption guidance.
If you have received the feedback survey, please take ten minutes to complete it. This is a genuinely co-created initiative.
Read more.
Industry News
Digital public infrastrucutre on our doorstep
Prime Minister Modi’s July visit brought digital public infrastructure into sharper focus for Aotearoa. India’s experience with Aadhaar, UPI and India Stack offers one of the world’s strongest examples of DPI at population scale.
For New Zealand, the opportunity is to shape the conversation on our own terms – with open standards, interoperability, privacy, governance and Māori data sovereignty built in from the start.
At our Digital Trust Hui Taumata, Dr Pramod Varma, Chief Architect of Aadhaar and the India Stack, will connect global DPI lessons with New Zealand use cases in tourism, food provenance and transport.
Read the full story.