A short Q&A with researchers Tom Dobber and Natali Helberger.

Mustafa Akgül of Bilkent University passed away on 13 December 2017 after a long battle with cancer. Commonly regarded as the "father of the internet in Turkey," he was one of the most important figures in establishing the first internet connection in Turkey on 12 April 1993.

While the internet routing system serves as kind of a nervous system, it is far from automated. Still to this day, network engineers turn to chat rooms and mailing lists to manufacture internet connectivity.

In recent years, a myriad of “defensive measures” were implemented by Russia to tighten state control over the internet. Recent laws passed by the State Duma are likely to bring Russia's internet under firm government control.

The importance of personal data for the digital economy accentuates a problematic information asymmetry between consumers and the data-driven market players. An increased consumer protection would have to deal with the lack of transparency of this black-box setup and a flawed use of consent as regulatory model. The consumer protection needs to be improved in practice, in its implementation, not only in its policy.

The rapid development of the Internet of Things - or IoT - affects the protection of privacy in profound ways. Eduardo Magrani argues in favour of a shift from privacy protection to the idea a “right to non-tracking”.

Referring to the television set, reseachers Kristina Irion and Natali Helberger argue that the CIA targeting of "our trusted friend in the living room" is yet another wake up call to European policymakers on privacy and confidentiality.

The German Federal Government is holding on to the German national law on data retention passed in 2015. In this op-ed, Volker Tripp of Digitale Gesellschaft argues that this attitude is untenable.

Fernando N. van der Vlist and Anne Helmond discuss Data Selfie, an open source browser extension that collects and analyses data about your behaviour on facebook.com

There is an increase in the Orwellian nature of schemes and programmes being launched in India, in spite of the absence of concrete privacy and data protection laws. While a major step towards mass surveillance was taken a few years ago in the form of “Aadhaar”, the central and state governments have subsequently adopted schemes which involve collection and processing of voluminous amounts of data.