The big data generated by digital interactions between people, organisations, and artefacts is transforming the way that we live, work and think—posing numerous challenges to information governance and regulation, including the Internet itself. We are exploring and analysing these challenges and working out how they may be overcome through new governance rules, processes, and institutions.
Threat modelling procedures in cybersecurity rely on experts to identify vulnerabilities and potential attackers. This process often reflects the assumptions and concerns about causes of insecurity among researchers, many of whom focus on security perspectives from the point of view of governments and large organisations. There are, however, many ways that citizens can understand threats in robust ways from their everyday experience.
Following feminist approaches to knowledge creation and technology design, this project helps citizens draw on their own experiences and individual positionality to expand cybersecurity research in threat modelling and usable security design. It does so through a series of public workshops and focus group discussions on personal data privacy.
Rather than dictating what threats citizens should be worrying about, this project elicits and listens to citizens’ concerns to expand the scope of threat modelling in cybersecurity. This process creates pathways for citizens to engage in shaping future research directions for cybersecurity: ones that are grounded in the lived experience of those who are traditionally excluded from discussions of cyber- or information security. The project will culminate with a series of reports for public dissemination. The first, released in July 2021, sets out findings from those workshops.
The shift to cloud represents a reversal of the 1980s personal computing revolution: computation is moving from personal devices back into large, centralized facilities. This project seeks to understand the economic drivers of this reversal.
This project investigates how human control is currently undermined in human-AI interactions. It presents sociotechnical approaches to examine mechanisms of control, and empower people in their interactions with increasingly advanced AI systems.
This project examines the fragmented legislations and legal landscape that governs the development, sale, and deployment of AI technologies used for government surveillance.
22 October 2024
A new comment piece by Professor Mariarosaria Taddeo, published in leading journal Nature, proposes six principles for responsible design and development of quantum technologies for defence.
15 August 2024
Looking for new reading recommendations for the summer months? The Oxford Internet Institute's faculty, staff, and students share their top picks.
17 July 2024
Leading experts in privacy at the OII and Imperial College believe traditional approaches to anonymizing data for scientific and societal research are outdated.
The Daily Upside, 06 November 2024
Semiconductor company Nvidia has managed to once again top Apple and become the world’s most valuable company.
Fortune, 06 November 2024
Donald Trump’s re-election as U.S. president will have massive repercussions for the technology sector.
Reuters, 25 October 2024
A painting by a humanoid robot artist called Ai-Da will make history this month when it is sold by Sotheby’s, the first time a humanoid robot will have its work sold by a major auction house, with commentary from Prof Sandra Wachter.
By William Dutton (Editor)
The Oxford Handbook of Internet Studies has been designed to provide a valuable resource for academics and students, bringing together leading scholarly perspectives on how the Internet has been studied, and the future research agenda.
Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation
Viktor Mayer-Schönberger is the OII's Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation. His research focuses on the role of information in a networked economy.
Viktor Mayer-Schönberger is Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at the OII. His research focuses on the role of information in a networked economy. His interests are in Big Data, digital economy, and institutions and governance in the data age. Previously, he was on the faculty of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
At the OII, he worked on the European Commission Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions funded Cyber Security Behaviours (CYBERSECURITY) project with Dr Bertrand Venard. This project aksed ‘what are the determinants of individual cyber security behaviours?’, aiming to understand the range of cyber security behaviours, using the example of students in France and the UK.
Dr Mayer-Schönberger has published eleven books, including the international bestseller ‘Big Data’ (HMH, co-authored with Kenneth Cukier, translated into more than 20 languages), ‘Learning with Big Data’ (HMH, co-authored with Kenneth Cukier) and the awards-winning ‘Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age’ with Princeton University Press (also available in multiple languages). He is the author of over a hundred articles and book chapters on the economics and governance of information, with work published in journals including Science, Foreign Affairs, and Journal of Internal Medicine.
Professor of Technology and Regulation
Professor Sandra Wachter is Professor of Technology and Regulation focusing on law and ethics of AI, Big Data, and robotics as well as Internet regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford
Associate Professor
Joss Wright's research interests lie in information controls, privacy-enhancing technologies, and cyber-enabled crime. His current research focuses on measuring internet censorship, and uncovering the online illegal wildlife trade.
British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow
Johann Laux works at the intersection of law and the social sciences. His current research is interested in the governance of emerging technologies as well as the design of institutions.
Dieter Schwarz Associate Professor, AI, Government & Policy.
Chris Russell is the Dieter Schwarz Associate Professor, AI, Government and Policy. Dr Russell’s work lies at the intersection of computer vision and responsible AI.
Former Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow
Anne-Marie Oostveen has interests in the social implications of new and emerging technologies, privacy aspects in relation to ICT, online activism, user participation as a practical form for (computer) system design, and HCI.
DPhil Student
Odysseas Sclavounis is a DPhil student at the OII and also at the Alan Turing Institute. His research focuses on the governance of public blockchains, specifically Bitcoin and Ethereum.
DPhil Programme Director (SDS), Lecturer
Luc investigates privacy harms posed by large-scale collections of human data and deployed AI technologies, identifying gaps in how technology is regulated and risks are documented, and proposing better data sharing models for academic research.
