Embedded in mobile devices, private homes, workplaces, and public spaces, sensors have
become ubiquitous in modern society. While improving our lives in many ways, the …

During my doctoral studies at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, I enjoyed
the invaluable privilege of true scientific freedom. Whilst of course being part of an institute …

Inferences drawn from patterns and correlations in collected data are becoming an
increasingly efficient way to access intimate information about unsuspecting individuals …

Recent decades have produced a wide variety of technical tools for privacy protection.
However, the hopes placed in these tools are often inflated. Overestimating the protective …

Central problems that repeatedly surfaced in the investigations for this dissertation are (1)
the obscurity and staggering complexity of modern data processing,(2) the privacy-intrusion …

Certain human habits with potential relation to privacy preferences date back to prehistoic
times (eg, covering nakedness [1]). Legal and theoretical precursors of today's privacy laws …

To secure a minimum level of accountability and control under the given complexities of data
processing, regulation should strive for the greatest possible transparency at all stages of …

Given the state of informational privacy in today's legal and socio-technical environment,
where people are being tracked and profiled wherever they go and whatever they do …

The strict and consequential legal distinction between “personal” and “non-personal” data
needs to be questioned. The scope of data protection laws is typically limited to personal …

Our paper “The Myth of Individual Control”[1] provides an overview of the numerous
obstacles that render the legal principle of privacy self-management 1 effectively useless in …