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.
This project examines the role of shareholder activism as an approach to understanding the development of AI governance.
Artificial intelligence-driven tactics for manipulating and generating visual information have become increasingly sophisticated and accessible. This project examines how diverse stakeholders can affect AI governance for synthetic media.
This programme supports research on AI, Government and Policy.
21 September 2023
Jack O’Callaghan, an undergraduate Economics student at the University of Kent, joined the Global Information and Technology Controls Hub at the Oxford Internet Institute as part of the University of Oxford UNIQ+ internship programme.
6 September 2023
Professor Greg Taylor, Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute, sets out his view on the European Commission’s latest announcement under the Digital Markets Act.
17 August 2023
Rather than looking to decentralization of technology alone, we should instead ask what configurations of technology mirror real-world arrangements of decision-making authority that have led to meaningful checks and balances.
Newsround, 14 September 2023
YouTube channels that use AI to make videos containing false "scientific" information are being recommended to children as "educational content".
BBC Radio 5 Live, 14 September 2023
It's very important we recognise this as a risk and we increasingly try and focus on training children to recognise this sort of content and to either avoid it or just not believe it.
The Conversation, 03 July 2023
In the evolving relationship between technology and society, humans have shown themselves to be incredibly adaptable. Dr Fabian Stephany and Dr Johann Laux share their insights on LLMs and the future of AI with The Conversation.
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
Senior Research Fellow
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., Research Associate
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.
