SEAPPI Webinar Highlights Proof of Human’s Role in Strengthening Digital Trust in APAC
Key Takeaways
- PoH is an important tool to build resilience again scams: Adding PoH to the digital ID layer, which confirms that a real human is behind the account, makes it harder for scammers to create fake or automated accounts on open platforms. However, PoH is not a silver bullet. PoH technologies confirm that a user is human, but they cannot prove the user’s benign intentions. Thus, PoH needs to be implemented within a broader risk-based safety framework.
- Adoption and cultural considerations are vital: The successful deployment of Digital ID and PoH technologies hinges significantly on social acceptance, and respect for cultural norms. Building trust with users, as well as educating them on the benefits of digital ID and PoH is essential to using these tools to build scam resilience.
- Standards are at the root of interoperability: Technical standards (specifically ISO and W3C) are essential for making systems trustable and interoperable across borders and sectors. There is significant opportunity in better coordination at the domestic and international levels to support cross-border tools that can increase cross-border scam resilience.
Bangkok, Thailand – Decemeber 2025 – the Southeast Asia Public Policy Institute (SEAPPI) hosted a webinar titled “Proof of Human: Digital Trust and Scam Resilience in APAC.” The session opened with remarks from SEAPPI’s Executive Director, Ed Ratcliffe, who presented the Institute’s new report, “Proof of Human: Building a Human Network for Digital Trust and Scam Resilience in APAC.”
The presentation set the scene for a panel discussion with regional technology and policy experts including Rita Irina Wahab, Deputy CEO, MyDigital ID; Kiyotaka Tanaka, Director, Japan Trust and Safety Association, and James Daniels, SVP APAC, Fime. The conversation explored how digital identity and emerging proof of human (PoH) technologies can strengthen trust and enhance resilience against scams.
Key highlights of the discussion included:
Technological Approaches and National Implementation: The development of digital identity and PoH varies across the region. In a number of countries, a privacy-first design is central, ensuring that biometric data is not stored centrally and that systems rely instead on secure, device-based verification methods.
Because mandatory adoption can be challenging, many governments still have kept participation voluntary, based on user consent and minimal data retention. Even so, use cases are expanding across key sectors such as telecommunications (for example, prepaid SIM registration to curb fake profiles), financial services (including e-KYC pilots in regulatory sandboxes), and public-sector services. As scams across the region continue to grow, particularly via social media, defence strategies must evolve constantly in response.
Cultural Nuances and Vulnerabilities: In many countries, cultural context strongly shapes both adoption and public acceptance. In societies with a strong preference for anonymity, people may be more comfortable proving that they are real humans (PoH) than disclosing their full identity (digital ID). This makes the distinction between digital ID and PoH especially important: PoH validates that a human exists behind an interaction, whereas digital ID reveals who that person is.
Demographics also influence how technologies are adopted. In countries with an ageing population, older people are often targeted by scams due to lower levels of digital literacy, underlining the need for sustained public-private education campaigns.
Interoperability and Standardization: The discussion also focused on the opportunity created by interoperability so that these systems can be trusted across borders. Given the complexity of the ecosystem, shared standards for interoperability are essential to ensuring reliability and building trust.
While such standards do not always need to be embedded in regulation, and can also be developed by industry bodies, they remain critical for validation. International standards such as those developed by ISO and W3C can serve as key mechanisms to bridge complex ecosystems. PoH technologies will need to “plug in” to these existing standards if they are to be effective at scale.
About the Southeast Asia Public Policy Institute
The Southeast Asia Public Policy Institute is a research institute based in Bangkok and Singapore, working across the region. Our mission is to support the development of solutions to the most pressing public policy challenges facing Southeast Asia in the 21st century. The Institute undertakes in-depth research to develop actionable policy solutions on a range of issues across sustainability, technology, public health, trade, and governance. We convene dialogues with stakeholders and decisionmakers to drive discussion on the challenges and opportunities facing markets across the region. The Institute draws on a network of in-market researchers, advisors, and partners to provide insights and recommendations for governments, policymakers, and businesses.
