Digitalswitzerland, a nation-wide multistakeholder initiative, launched the Swiss Digital Initiative (SDI)that will work on developing ethical standards. It was presented during the first Swiss Global Digital Summit where representatives from companies, science, and research discussed the perils of data-driven and algorithmic processes. The digital transformation of our societies can erode trust between citizens, companies and governments. It can also shift control away from human to algorithms, thus posing a series of ethical questions about our digital futures. Leading up to the Summit, Swiss academics drafted a policy paper,which will guide the work of the SDI through: 1) ensuring ethical standards, 2) fostering technology's potential to advance human societies, 3) focusing on ethical values and principles in action, 4) developing specific, action-oriented projects for a global dialogue on the ethics, trust and actors in the ongoing process of digital transformation.