The European Union has granted a consortium led by technology solutions provider Smartmatic with a three-year research program to develop new cryptographic tools to protect the data and privacy for numerous applications, including elections.
Smartmatic Philippines president Jane Coo said the European Commission has awarded Smartmatic-Cybernetica Centre of Excellence for Internet Voting a new research granted under the EU’s Horizon 2020 Programme.
The consortium also includes IBM Research Zurich, University of Tartu, Technical University Eindhoven, University of Salerno, GRNET, University of Edinburgh, Guardtime AS, and GUNET.
Horizon 2020 is the biggest European Union Research and Innovation program. It was created in 2014 to ensure Europe produces world-class science, removes barriers to innovation and makes it easier for the public and private sectors to work together in delivering innovation.
Coo noted that Smartmatic was earlier provided a 15-year contract in Belgium as voting technology provider that used in the elections for members of the EU Parliament in 2014.
“This result of this EU research award could help us in greatly improving the way we conduct our elections in the country. There is a scheduled elections on October 2018 (in Belgium) and we are in the thick of preparations, busy delivering new voting machines and services,” Coo said.
She said the company recently used its TIVI blockchain technology in Norway in a local plebiscite that led to a record-breaking 85 percent turnout as the voters were allowed vote online. Polling stations were still put up for those who may not have access to the internet.
Coo said blockchain allows people to vote online with full trust and security because the technology uses a large network of computers continuously synchronizing and exchanging information with each other, which makes the data impossible to hack.
In the Philippines, this could mean less traffic and shorter lines in polling precincts during elections, she said.