Professor Sarah Spiekermann
Former Visiting Fellow
Professor
Sarah Spiekermann
Former Visiting Fellow
Sarah chairs the Institute for Management Information Systems at Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna). She has published over 70 articles on social and ethical implications of computer systems and has given over 80 presentations of her work and thinking throughout the world. Her main expertise is electronic privacy, disclosure behavior and ethical computing Sarah has co-authored US/EU privacy regulation for RFID technology and regularly works as an advisor to companies and governmental institutions, including the EU Commission and the OECD. Besides this professional engagement she maintains a blog on “The Ethical Machine“, is on the board of the Austrian art & science think-tank GlobArt and supports WU’s student consultancy company uniforce on the advisory board.
Before being tenured in Vienna, Sarah was Assistant Professor at the Institute of Information Systems at Humboldt University Berlin (Germany), Adjunct Research Professor with the Heinz College of Public Policy and Management, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, USA) and head of the Berlin Research Centre on Internet Economics.
Sarah is interested in how to design computer systems that support human values, value-sensitive design, ethical system design, privacy by design, privacy impact assessments, etc. She also conducts empirical research, experimental research, and qualitative studies; mostly in the field of online disclosure behaviour and electronic privacy, but also in related fields, such as attention management and reaction to advertisement. Recently she has started to propose some conceptual work in the area of data protection and personal data markets. She is interested how personal data markets could function legally and technically while preserving people’s privacy.