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.
7 July 2025
Whether it is merely long-term hype or near-term reality, Large Language Models (LLMs) in medicine are well-positioned to engage with a wide range of medical tasks and be used for medical research purposes.
10 March 2025
Meta recently announced its plan to build the world’s longest submarine cable system. The OII’s Professor Vili Lehdonvirta and DPhil candidate Anniki Mikelsaar ask what geopolitical and economic significance this new project may have.
3 February 2025
In Conversation with Professor Mariarosaria Taddeo, Oxford Internet Institute discussing the ethics of AI in defence.
Somewhere on Earth: The Global Tech Podcast, 09 July 2025
Meta’s Project Waterworth isn’t just another undersea cable - it’s an 18,000 mile behemoth set to link continents, with India’s data centres as a key hub. Anniki Mikelsaar from the OII breaks down its geopolitical stakes.
Nature, 25 June 2025
Imaging research in the popular field of computer vision almost always involves analysing humans and their environments, and most of the subsequent patents can be used in surveillance technologies, a study has found.
New York Times, 21 June 2025
As countries race to power artificial intelligence, a yawning gap is opening around the world, with commentary from Prof Vili Lehdonvirta.
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.
Former MSc 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.
Senior Research Fellow
Luc conducts human-centred computing research to understand how data and algorithms impact society. They work to make digital power visible to the public and guide the development of accountable, sustainable, and safe algorithms for all.
