This paper examines three historical imaginaries associated with encryption, considering how they are intertwined in contemporary policy debates.
Given the weakness of consent-dependent agreements in relation to profiling and prediction markets, consumer protection needs improvement.
With widespread smart contract implementation on the horizon, there is much conversation about how to regulate this new technology. Noting the failure of contract law to address the inequities of standardised contracts in the digital environment can help prevent them from being codified further into smart contracts.
Big crisis data presuppose the ongoing calculation and valuation of (transient) events, producing both singular and networked events and actors.
This paper explores how four approaches to cyber security are constructed, motivated and justified by different values such as privacy, economic order and national security and what this means for the actors involved.
This article distils from the various (proposals for) platform regulation operational principles that can serve as the basis for productive debate on the subject.
Political micro-targeting has become a popular topic after the surprise results of the 2016 US presidential election, the UK vote on leaving the European Union, and a number of general elections in Europe in 2017. Yet, we still know little about whether PMT is a tool with destructive potential or if it’s “just” a new phenomenon to be incorporated into our political processes.
What if presidents and policies could be bought and sold online? Social media and advertising technology are making that a reality.
This essay argues that we have anxieties about micro-targeting because we have anxieties about democracy itself.
The Brazilian 2014 elections were the first to heavily apply Whatsapp as a micro-targeting tool. This paper aims to test the effectiveness of Whatsapp compared to more traditional approaches. First, we find that short videos delivered via WhatsApp are a powerful method of increasing turnout among teen voters. Second, we add Brazil to the list of countries in which the traditional method of door-to-door canvassing has been proven a powerful method of mobilising voters.