Oxford Internet Institute

Information Governance and Security

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 of the Internet itself. We are exploring and analysing these challenges, working out how they may be overcome through new governance rules, processes, and institutions.

People: Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Ian Brown, Vicki Nash, Anne-Marie Oostveen, Ben Zevenbergen

Research

We are investigating how emerging technologies like biometrics, surveillance tools and the Internet of Things can be designed and governed to preserve the competing demands of information security, privacy and individual freedom. We examine how people interact with automated border gate technology like iris scanners; are developing techniques to retrieve and analyse data on global censorship and surveillance; and investigating how research into violent online extremism can be carried out while also protecting privacy and free speech. We’re also investigating the challenges and opportunities of digital citizenship in the light of the governmental mass-surveillance measures revealed by whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

Selected Publications

The below are a few publications in this area: for complete lists of outputs, please refer to individual faculty biographies.

• Mayer-Schönberger, V. (2016)  “Big Data for cardiology: novel discovery?“, European Heart Journal. 37 (12) 996-1001.
• Nugraha, Y., Brown, I. and Sastrosubroto, A.S. (2016)  “An Adaptive Wideband Delphi Method to Study State Cyber-Defence Requirements“, IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing. 4 (1) 47-59.
• Mayer-Schoenberger, V. and Padova, Y. (2016)  “Regime Change? Enabling Big Data Through Europe’s New Data Protection Regulation”, Columbia Science and Technology Law Review. 17(Spring 2016) 315-335.
• Nash, V.J., Adler, J.R., Horvath, M.A.H., Livingstone, S., Marston, C., Owen, G. and Wright, J.(2016)  “Identifying the Routes by which Children View Pornography Online: Implications for Future Policy-makers Seeking to Limit Viewing” In: Report of the Expert Panel for the DCMS Consultation “Child Safety Online: Age Verification for Pornography”.
• Vasalou, A., Oostveen, A.-.M., Bowers, C. and Beale, R. (2015)  “Understanding engagement with the privacy domain through design research“, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. 66 (6) 1263-1273.
• Cooper, A. and Brown, I. (2015)  “Net Neutrality: Discrimination, Competition, and Innovation in the UK and US“, ACM TRANSACTIONS ON INTERNET TECHNOLOGY. 15 (1) 29-49.
• Barone, F., Zeitlyn, D. and Mayer-Schoenberger, V. (2015)  “Learning from failure: The case of the disappearing Web site“, First Monday. 20 (5) 1.
• Brown, I. (2014)  “Britain’s smart meter programme: A case study in privacy by design“, International Review of Law, Computers and Technology. 28 (2) 172-184.
• Oostveen, A.M., Vasalou, A., Van Den Besselaar, P. and Brown, I. (2014)  “Child location tracking in the us and the UK: Same technology, different social implications”, Surveillance and Society. 12 (4) 581-593.
• Mayer-Schönberger, V. and Cukier, K. (2013)  Big Data A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
• Zevenbergen, B., Brown, I., Wright, J. and Erdos, D. (2013)  Ethical privacy guidelines for mobile connectivity measurements. Oxford: Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford.
• Mazanderani, F., Papoutsi, C. and Brown, I. (2013)  “A reflexive analysis of ‘context’ in privacy research: Two case studies in HIV care“, International Journal of Human Computer Studies. 71(12) 1126-1132.
• Mayer-Schönberger, V. (2011)  Delete The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age. Princeton University Press.
• Dutton, W.H., Dopatka, A., Hills, M., Law, G., and Nash, V. (2011) Freedom of Connection – Freedom of Expression: The Changing Legal and Regulatory Ecology Shaping the Internet. Paris: UNESCO, Division for Freedom of Expression, Democracy and Peace.