News and Research articles on Microsoft

Anchoring the need to revise cross-border access to e-evidence

Sergi Vazquez Maymir, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
PUBLISHED ON: 16 Sep 2020 DOI: 10.14763/2020.3.1495

The percentages and figures used in the impact assessment accompanying the European Commission’s e-evidence package strongly influence the analysis of the problem and limit the assessment of the problem of cross-border access to e-evidence to technical and efficiency considerations.

Going global: Comparing Chinese mobile applications’ data and user privacy governance at home and abroad

Lianrui Jia, University of Toronto
Lotus Ruan, University of Toronto
PUBLISHED ON: 16 Sep 2020 DOI: 10.14763/2020.3.1502

This paper examines data and privacy governance by four China-based mobile applications and their international versions - including the role of the state. It also highlights the role of platforms in gatekeeping mobile app privacy standards.

Back up: can users sue platforms to reinstate deleted content?

Matthias C. Kettemann, Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut
Anna Sophia Tiedeke, Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut
PUBLISHED ON: 4 Jun 2020 DOI: 10.14763/2020.2.1484

Can platforms delete whatever content they want? Not everywhere, say the authors of this paper, which shows why certain social networks ‘must carry’ some content – and how users in some jurisdictions can force the companies to allow them into their communicative space.

Platform ad archives: promises and pitfalls

Paddy Leerssen, University of Amsterdam
Jef Ausloos, University of Amsterdam
Brahim Zarouali, University of Amsterdam
Natali Helberger, University of Amsterdam
Claes de Vreese, University of Amsterdam
PUBLISHED ON: 9 Oct 2019 DOI: 10.14763/2019.4.1421

Ad archives are a novel tool in online advertising governance. They promise significant benefits, but only if their operators address key criticisms.

Reframing platform power

José van Dijck, Utrecht University
David Nieborg, University of Toronto
Thomas Poell, University of Amsterdam
PUBLISHED ON: 30 Jun 2019 DOI: 10.14763/2019.2.1414

This paper is part of Transnational materialities, a special issue of Internet Policy Review guest-edited by José van Dijck and Bernhard Rieder. Introduction In March 2019, the European Commission fined Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. 1.5 billion euro for antitrust violations in the online advertising market—the third fine in three years. In July 2018, European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager had levied a record fine of 4.3 billion euro on Google for breaching European competition rules by forcing cell phone manufacturers to pre-install a dozen of the firms’ apps when using Android—Google’s mobile operating system. And in 2016, the company was punished for unlawfully favouring Google …

The ‘golden view’: data-driven governance in the scoring society

Lina Dencik, Cardiff University
Joanna Redden, Cardiff University
Arne Hintz, Cardiff University
Harry Warne, Cardiff University
PUBLISHED ON: 30 Jun 2019 DOI: 10.14763/2019.2.1413

This paper is part of Transnational materialities, a special issue of Internet Policy Review guest-edited by José van Dijck and Bernhard Rieder. Introduction Questions about how data is generated, collected and used have taken hold of public imagination in recent years, not least in relation to government. While the collection of data about populations has always been central to practices of governance, the digital era has placed increased emphasis on the politics of data in state-citizen relations and contemporary power dynamics. In part a continuation of long-standing processes of bureaucratisation, the turn to data-centric practices in government across Western democracies emerges out of …

Reading between the lines and the numbers: an analysis of the first NetzDG reports

Amélie Heldt, Hans-Bredow-Institut
PUBLISHED ON: 12 Jun 2019 DOI: 10.14763/2019.2.1398

The German Network Enforcement Act is an attempt to counteract the effects of hate speech on social media platforms. This paper analyses and evaluates the reports on the handling of complaints about unlawful content after its coming into force.

Zero rating has emerged as one of the most contentious communications policy debates of the last decade. The offer of ‘free’ access to select applications compromises network neutrality, at the same time as it can present advantages to users with limited economic resources. How can we attempt to reconcile these conflicting dimensions of zero rating?

The countering of terrorism propaganda online, through private companies, may little by little kill our right to freedom of expression.

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 privacy role of information intermediaries through self-regulation

Tatevik Sargsyan, American University
PUBLISHED ON: 16 Dec 2016 DOI: 10.14763/2016.4.438

This paper provides qualitative analysis of Google’s and Microsoft’s policies and examines case studies to enhance understanding about the privacy role of information intermediaries in self-regulatory arrangements.