Code of ethics

1. Who this applies to

This code binds every member of Association of Digital Trust Practitioners, every holder of an ADTP course certificate, and every holder of an ADTP professional credential. It applies to conduct in professional practice and to conduct in Association spaces. It does not govern private life.

Acceptance is a condition of membership. Credential holders reaffirm it at each renewal.

2. The obligations

2.1 Act in the public interest

Trust governance work exists because decisions about data, systems and suppliers affect people who were never consulted. Where the interests of an employer, a client and the people whose data is held come into conflict, give proper weight to the people who cannot argue for themselves. This does not require disloyalty to an employer. It requires that their interests do not silently become the only ones considered.

2.2 Be truthful about what you know

State findings accurately, including inconvenient ones. Do not present an opinion as a finding, an assumption as evidence, or an untested control as a working one. If asked to soften an assessment in a way that would mislead the recipient, decline and say why.

2.3 Work within your competence

Accept work you are able to do, or say plainly what you do not yet know and arrange for it to be covered. Nobody in this field is expert across all seven strands of the practice, and pretending otherwise is how bad advice reaches a decision.

2.4 Keep confidences

Information obtained in the course of professional work belongs to the party that disclosed it. Do not disclose it, trade on it, or use it for personal advantage. This survives the end of the engagement or the employment. It does not extend to concealing unlawful conduct where you have a legal duty to report.

2.5 Declare conflicts

Disclose any financial, personal or professional interest that could reasonably be seen to affect your judgement, to the party relying on that judgement, before they rely on it. Disclosure is the obligation. Whether to proceed after disclosure is their decision, not yours.

2.6 Do not misrepresent your standing

Claim only the memberships, certificates and credentials you actually hold, in the form the Association publishes them.

• Membership of the Association is not a credential and must not be described as one.
• Charter Practitioner is a founding membership designation. It records when you joined. It must never be presented as a certification, a qualification or evidence of assessed capability.
• A course certificate records completed learning. It is not a professional credential.
• A professional credential may be claimed only while it is current, and only by the person who earned it.

These distinctions are the reason our recognition means anything. A member who blurs them damages every other member.

2.7 Protect the integrity of examinations

Do not disclose, reproduce, solicit or collect examination content. Do not sit an examination for another person or permit another person to sit yours. Do not use unauthorised assistance during a sitting. Report any attempt to compromise an examination that comes to your attention.

2.8 Treat people with respect

In Association spaces and in professional dealings, no harassment, discrimination, or conduct that would make a reasonable colleague unwilling to raise a concern. Disagreement is welcome and is not the same thing.

2.9 Obey the law

Comply with the law applicable to your work, including the data protection law governing information you handle. Where this code and the law conflict, the law prevails, and you should tell us that it did.

2.10 Keep learning

Maintain the currency of your practice. Obligations, technologies and threats change faster than any single qualification, and a practitioner who stopped learning is not practising to this standard.

3. Raising a concern

Concerns about conduct under this code may be sent through the contact form with the subject line "Ethics concern". Include what happened, when, and any evidence you can share.

We acknowledge receipt. The Association reviews the concern, contacts the person it concerns and gives them a fair opportunity to respond before reaching any conclusion. We do not act on anonymous allegations without corroborating evidence, and we do not disclose the identity of a person raising a concern to the subject except where fairness or the law requires it.

Retaliation against someone who raises a concern in good faith is itself a breach of this code. A concern raised in bad faith, or to harass, is also a breach.

4. Outcomes

Where a breach is established, the Association may take any of the following, proportionate to what occurred: a private note of concern; a requirement to complete specified learning; suspension of membership; withdrawal of a credential; withdrawal of the Charter Practitioner designation; or termination of membership. Withdrawal of a credential is published on its verification page, because a credential nobody can check is worth nothing and one that has been withdrawn must say so.

A person subject to an adverse outcome may appeal once, in writing, within 30 days. An appeal is considered by someone who was not part of the original decision.

5. Status of this document

This is version 1.0, issued as the Association establishes its professional standards. It is deliberately short and will be extended as the Association matures, in particular around the bodies that consider concerns and appeals. Revisions are versioned and dated on this page. Material changes are notified to members, and the version you accepted is recorded.

Nothing here limits any right you have under applicable law, or any obligation you owe your employer or client independently of this code.