Forum for Technology and Society

A Platform for Multidisciplinary Exploration and Exchange on Issues at the Intersection of Technological Developments and Societal Dynamics

The Forum for Technology and Society facilitates dialog and exchange of perspectives between researchers and practitioners from various disciplines and backgrounds with the aim of promoting a better understanding of the impact of emerging technologies on our societies.

Featured Publications

Digital Public Sphere

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The Global Story of Election Interference

Over the past two decades, social media has significantly reshaped democratic societies, offering greater diversity of opinion and information exchange while also posing risks of subversion exploited by authoritarian regimes.

By Olaf Boehnke and Carlo Zensus

Platform Regulation in the EU

Gearing up for the Digital Decade? Assessing the Enforcement Mechanisms of the EU’s Platform Regulation Bills

The EU aims to be a "global role model for the digital economy" and promote its regulatory model globally. Lawmakers are considering options to limit 'Big Tech' power by regulating their data-driven business models.

By Amélie Heldt

Digital Turbulence: Challenges facing Democracies in Times of Digital Turmoil

This backgrounder aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of how digital media are shaping democracy and what might be done to limit possible avenues of anti-democratic abuse, while kindling their democratic potential.

By Jan Rau and Felix M. Simon

Spotify_Netflix

What are Information Markets?

Online activity and abundant free information often overshadow challenges in markets and information niches lacking sustainable business models. This explainer discusses why information markets fail and how to fix them.

By Daphne Raban

Trump

A Thriving Digital Public Sphere - The Overlooked, Yet Critical Role of Political Parties and Politicians

As important as a focus on tech platforms is, there is growing and persuasive empirical evidence that political parties and politicians themselves and their behavior online play an even greater role for a healthy public sphere

By Dieter Zinnbauer

Reichstagsgebaeude

Containing authoritarianism in the digital age: Platform governance in view of Germany’s constitutional order

Combating authoritarian overreach and protecting minority rights without turning autocratic is a perennial challenge for democracies, now intensified by the threat of digital authoritarianism.

By Martin Fertmann and Jan Rau

Propaganda

Fighting disinformation and the question of origin

This text evaluates online media control in liberal democracies, noting that combating disinformation has increasingly justified governmental restrictions on information flow.

By Wolf Schünemann

Digital Economy

Diversity

What is data stewardship, and how could it address questions of power imbalance in the data economy?

Data stewardship describes a set of governance mechanisms that allow individuals and communities greater agency over their information. How can data stewardship models address questions of power imbalance in the data economy?

By Anouk Ruhaak and Astha Kapoor

GDPR

Trends in Privacy Enforcement: A Comparative Analysis of post-GDPR Enforcement Styles

This analysis aims to capture and cluster different post-GDPR enforcement styles by DPAs across the EU to better understand why enforcement over data protection issues vary across borders.

By Ido Sivan-Sevilla

Teleworking to Inequality

Telework Challenges: Gender and Socioeconomic Impact

Telework has many positive effects on society, employers, and employees. However, along with all its advantages, working from home also has problematic implications for workers’ rights.

By Tammy Katsabian

Digital Rights

Digital Rights in Israel

Over the past two decades, digital rights have become central to global internet governance debates, with varying interpretations across countries. This Spotlight offers an overview of digital rights in Israel.

By Efrat Daskal

Online Safety

Digital Safety and Social Inequity: What's the Connection?

The rise in digitally-enabled employment and education raises concern about the potential for digital inequities, including the unequal use of safety behaviors that determine people’s ability to stay safe online

By Elissa M. Redmiles

Data Intermediaries

What are Data Intermediaries?

Based on the data they collect, platforms are able to target personalized content at the user level. What are the collective aspects of personalization on media platforms? How do they affect our privacy?

By Ayelet Gordon-Tapiero

Privacy

What is Privacy by Design?

What is Privacy by Design? How address the evolving challenges to privacy as a fundamental right in our increasingly digital and networked world, amidst growing concerns over data breaches and surveillance? What challenges does privacy face today?

By Simone Fischer-Hübner

Data Protection

What are Dark Patterns?

Dark Patterns can be defined as are design practices applied to the interface of an online service that impact data subjects before or during the moment of data collection.

By Luiza Jarovsky

Ethics and Governance of Technology

EU Regulation

The Regulation of Artificial Intelligence in the EU

AI regulation is a debated intensively worldwide, with new laws in countries like France, Germany, China, and Canada, and ongoing debates in the US and Brazil. The following backgrounder explains the key issues at stake.

By Christian Djeffal

Artificial Intelligence and Democracy

Artificial Intelligence and Democracy

This backgrounder explores AI's impact on democracy, focusing on three areas: its influence on the public sphere, its role in election campaigns, and the accountability of automated decision systems in public services.

By Thorsten Thiel

Better Images of AI / Autonomous Driving

Who’s to blame when artificial intelligence systems cause damage?

AI systems outperform humans in many fields and have vast potential, but they also cause significant damage. This Explainer reviews the debate on addressing harm caused by AI.

By Karni Chagal-Feferkorn

Image by Alan Warburton / © BBC / Better Images of AI / Virtual Human / CC-BY 4.0

The Role of Trust in the German AI Strategy

Using the German AI debate as a case study, this Spotlight sheds light on how the seemingly elusive concept of ‘trust in AI’ is (a) used as a rhetorical device to navigate the tension between innovation and regulation and (b) translated into practical suggestions

By Katharina Höne

CAPTCHA

Automated Decision Making: A Hidden Blessing for Uncovering Systemic Bias?

Proper systematic audits of automated decision-making can keep algorithms accountable and help systems and institutions understand and address inherent biases.

MaxGruber-Banana_ Plant _ Flask

Cross-Cultural Values defining AI Governing Principles

Like previous technological advancements, artificial intelligence is inherently neutral, neither inherently good nor bad. This Spotlight reflects on the question of how to evaluate AI-based technologies that could improve citizens' quality of life and consumer experience, but that are vulnerable to being abused.

By Alexander Görlach

Gender Gap in AI

The Gender Gap in Artificial Intelligence

AI is growing fast with 'smart' machines and automated systems, but it faces a significant gender gap with few women in global AI and data roles. This Explainer highlights the need to close this gap.

By Erin Lorelie Young

Targeted Advertising

Targeted Advertising – How it Works and Where it is Failing

Targeted advertising, or microtargeting, involves displaying selected ads to a predefined group of users on a platform at auctioned prices. This Explainer highlights the implications and controversies surrounding the practice.

By Marie-Theres Sekwenz

Amritha R Warrier & AI4Media / Better Images of AI / tic tac toe / CC-BY 4.0

How to Avoid Harmful Algorithmic Fairness?

Data-driven decision-making can discriminate against minorities. While scientists have developed fairness constraints to counter this, enforcing these constraints may paradoxically harm the disadvantaged group.

By Omer Ben-Porat

AI and Defense

AI-based Defense Systems – How to Design them Responsibly?

To safeguard personal freedom and the rule of law, democracies must adapt to "fight at machine speed" when necessary. This means digitization in defense should extend beyond logistics and surveillance to include responsible weapons engagement.

By Wolfgang Koch

Alexa Steinbrück / Better Images of AI / Explainable AI / CC-BY 4.0

Regulatory Interdependence in Artificial Intelligence

Regulatory interdependence shapes AI ethics enforcement and requires a diverse approach to enhance jurisdictions' AI sovereignty, crucial for the EU's digital sovereignty goals.

By Daniel Mügge

Lady Justice

Artificial Intelligence and Tort Law: Who Should be Held Liable when AI Causes Damages?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming a prevalent part of our society and commercial market. However, this emerging technology is not without flaws and raises pressing questions of liability.

A photographic rendering of a smiling face emoji seen through a refractive glass grid, overlaid with a diagram of a neural network.

Is the DSA Revolutionizing Algorithmic Risk Governance?

Online platforms shape communication but face moderation challenges. The DSA introduces risk governance for platforms to improve online safety. What are the DSA's procedures and impact?

By Christian Djeffal

Image by Alan Warburton / © BBC / Better Images of AI / Quantified Human / CC-BY 4.0

AI and Elections: Observations, Analyses and Prospects

This Spotlight explores how the ability of AI to disseminate information more effectively is prone to abuse and can pose a threat to democracy. It then discusses the preconditions and potential of AI to support the building of a critical public sphere.

By Jessica Heesen

Technology and Geopolitics

5G-Funkturm mit 5G

What is 5G?

The fifth-generation cellular network technology, 5G, is about to accelerate the overall pace of our daily lives and become a key part of our critical digital infrastructure. At the same time, it also entails risks on issues such as national security, individual privacy and economic dependence.

5G Technology

Stuck in the Middle: 5G networks in Germany and Israel in times of Sino-American competition

The rollout of the fifth generation of mobile telecommunication networks (5G) constitutes the backbone of the fourth industrial revolution. The way in which these networks are built, and by whom, has become a hotly debated issue in Western countries.

By Tim Stuchtey and Amit Sheniak

German Parliament

Seven Lessons from the German 5G Debate

The following text examines the political debate on the topic of 5G in Germany and draws seven lessons for future debates on the reliability of technology providers for critical infrastructure.

By Thorsten Benner

Smartphone hacking

Export Control of Surveillance Software from Germany and Europe - Regulations, Limits and Weaknesses

The regulation of the export of surveillance technology and services in the EU leaves many loopholes for its circumvention. The upcoming revisited EU export control regime is trying to close these loopholes, but many issues remain, which the present contribution aims to address.

By Thomas Reinhold

Why Germany Should Practice the Cyber Norms it Preaches

Why Germany should practice the cyber norms it preaches

2021 has seen new momentum in the global debate on cyber norms. Germany figures among the avid supporters of cyber norms. Yet, does the German government practice what it preaches?

By Alexandra Paulus

Quantum computers and accelerated discovery

The German strategy in the race for the quantum computer

If the development of a commercially viable quantum computer is successful, those companies and governments that had early access to hardware and software will have a significant business advantage and increase in technological sovereignty over those who entered the race late.

By Florian Süssenguth

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What are quantum computing and quantum communication?

What are quantum computing and quantum communication? This Explainer provides insights into the potential of qunatum computing and the current pace of development in the quantum domain.

By Juljan Krause

Better Images of AI / Nature

An Algorithm for Peace? AI in International Peace Mediation

AI in the context of international conflict is more likely to be associated with lethal autonomous weapons (LAWS) on the battlefield. Hiding on the other side of that coin are, however, rewarding questions regarding AI’s possible contribution to peace.

By Katharina Höne

Publications

40 years of the German Privacy Movement

40 Years of the German Privacy Movement

Why is there so much awareness for data protection in Germany? Insights into 40 years of privacy movement and the strength of the German privacy movement.

By Rena Tangens

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Invisible Surveillance, Indifferent Publics

Invisible Surveillance, Indifferent Publics

Contact tracing technologies against Covid-19 – an analysis of privacy perceptions related to two technologies used in Israel and recommendations for the future

By Dr. Dalit Ken-Dror Feldman , Dr. Ronit Purian , Dr. Anat Ben-David and Nigmeh Kadan Abu Toameh

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Germany's Troubled Trajectory with Mass Surveillance and the European Search for Safeguards

Germany's Troubled Trajectory with Mass Surveillance and the European Search for Safeguards

A case study on Germany’s recent troubled history with mass surveillance. How can and will personal data be protected against disproportionate interference by the state?

By Dr. Thorsten Wetzling

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Eroding Trust

Eroding Trust - Contact Tracing Technologies in Israel

Contract tracing technologies in Israel– helpful tools for combatting COVID-19 or serious threats to privacy? An analysis of two contact tracing technologies

By Dr. Eran Toch

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The German Corona-App: Expectations, Debates and Results

The German Corona Warning app - a success story or not worth its costs? Insights into the app and the debate surrounding it.

By Ann Cathrin Riedel

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Who will watch the Watchmen - Cover Image

Who Will Watch the Watchmen?

Israel Security Agency surveillance for coronavirus location tracking – an examination of the workings of the Israeli online surveillance oversight array and future recommendations.

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Global Perspectives on the Use of Surveillance Tech in Times of Crisis - Heinrich Böll Stiftung Tel Aviv

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