Meet The People

Accountable Systems, Human-Centric Computing & Technology Governance
Dr. Ben Wagner is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Privacy & Sustainable Computing Lab at Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien), where his research focuses on technology policy, human rights and accountable information systems. He is an Associate Faculty member at the Complexity Science Hub Vienna, a visiting researcher at the Human Centred Computing Group at the University of Oxford and a member of the Advisory Group of the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA). He previously worked at the Technical University of Berlin, Cambridge University, the University of Pennsylvania and European University Viadrina. He holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from European University Institute in Florence.

Accountable Systems, Human-Centric Computing & Technology Governance
Dr. Ben Wagner is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Privacy & Sustainable Computing Lab at Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien), where his research focuses on technology policy, human rights and accountable information systems. He is an Associate Faculty member at the Complexity Science Hub Vienna, a visiting researcher at the Human Centred Computing Group at the University of Oxford and a member of the Advisory Group of the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA). He previously worked at the Technical University of Berlin, Cambridge University, the University of Pennsylvania and European University Viadrina. He holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from European University Institute in Florence.

Online hate speech, surveillance and security, freedom of expression 

Internet Law, Online Rule-Making, Human Rights in Digitality, Internet Governance

PD Mag. Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann, LL.M. (Harvard), joined as an associate researcher in 2019. In 2020 he was elected member of the Management Board. Matthias is co-leader of the Platform and Content Governance Research Group. Outside the lab, Matthias is Head of the Research Program Regulatory Structures and the Emergence of Rules in Online Spaces at the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI), Hamburg and Visiting Professor of international law at the University of Jena. At the Lab, he runs a multidisciplinary research project with Ben Wagner conducting freedom of expression governance analytics on user comment datasets of newspapers and information exchange sites. He studied international and Internet law in Graz, Geneva and Harvard Law School and completed his postdoctoral work at the Cluster of Excellence “The Emergence of Normative Orders” at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. Matthias has provided expertise for the German Bundestag, several DAX companies, foundations and international organizations, on Internet regulation, cybersecurity and human rights.

Head of the Institute for Information Systems and New Media
Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria

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Markus F. Peschl (*1965) is professor of cognitive science and philosophy of science at the University of Vienna, Dept. of Philosophy. His areas of research and expertise include innovation, cognitive science, organizational theory and strategy, design, and spaces for knowledge- and innovation work (Enabling Spaces).

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Co-Founder of the Privacy & Sustainable Computing Lab
Head of the Institute of Information Systems and Society
Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria

Univ.Prof. Dr. Sarah Spiekermann is a professor for Business Informatics since 2009 and chairs the IMIS. Her main areas of expertise are electronic privacy, RFID, personalization/CRM, attention and interruption management (notification platforms) and context-adaptivity. She has been advising the EU Commission in the area of privacy for RFID since 2005, served as a reviewer of RFID FP7 projects SMART and BRIDGE, co-authored and negotiated the PIA-Framework for RFID (signed in April 2011 by the EU Commission) and developed the PIA guidelines for privacy-friendly RFID systems for the German Federal Institute of Information Security (BSI) (published in November 2011).

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Cyber-Security, Risk & Technology in Society

Dr. Alexander Novotny is an information security and privacy specialist. He is an information security manager of cyber risks in the utilities industry and member of the EE-ISAC (European Energy Information Sharing and Analysis Centre) dealing with joint analysis of cyber threats, vulnerabilities, incidents, solutions and opportunities to improve the resilience and security of the European energy infrastructure. He is a member of the IEEE P7000 engineering methodologies for ethical life-cycle concerns working group addressing ethical considerations throughout the various stages of the IT system development lifecycle (SDLC). Moreover, Alexander is a lecturer at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. He has been teaching lectures on information privacy and security, IoT security, ethical computing, and information and communication technology.

Alexander is a certified CIS information security manager according to ISO 27001. Also, he is a certified auditor for the IT-security of critical infrastructures according to § 8a (3) BSIG of the German IT-security law (“IT-Sicherheitsgesetz”). Moreover, he has been serving as a standardization expert for digital marketing and privacy at the Austrian Standards Institute.

Publications / Contact

Algorithmic Auditing, Computational Social Science

Astrid Krickl is a teaching and research associate at Vienna University of Economics and Business’s Institute for Information Systems and New Media. She has a Bachelor’s degree in business Informatics as well as a Master’s degree in Information Systems Management. She is currently studying in the doctoral program in Social and Economic Sciences, where she analyzes disinformation. Her current study focuses on approaches for combating misinformation, such as identifying and verifying fake news.

Algorithmic Accountability & Transparency

Florian Cech is a research scientist and PhD candidate at the Centre for Informatics and Society (C!S) at TU Wien. His research is focused on aspects of the digital transformation related to algorithmic accountability, transparency and user interface design, and he teaches classes on Critical Algorithm Studies. He is also working as a software engineer, developing sustainability management and energy accounting tools with the European Energy Awards (EEA) program.

Hooman Habibnia holds his bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Tehran. He is currently studying the Middle European Interdisciplinary Master’s program in the field of Cognitive Science (Mei: CogSci) at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. He joined the Sustainable Computing Lab as a research assistant in 2019. His interests vary from HCI, data-driven AI, human decision making, behavioral economics to predictive processing.

Stefanie Alice Hofer has an interdisciplinary background in Psychology, Cognitive Science, Software & Information Engineering, and International Development. She researches on human-centricity and sustainability of information systems. In particular, she is interested in developing frameworks for the co-construction of human-centric and sustainable socio-technical systems through digital transformation.

Management, Compression and Encryption of Semantic Data

Dr. Javier D. Fernández is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Information Business at the Vienna University of   Economics and Business (WU Wien), where he employed under a Lise Meitner grant that is funded by the FWF Austrian Science Fund. He holds a joint Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Valladolid (Spain) and the University of Chile (Chile), performing this double diploma thanks to an Erasmus Mundus grant. Before he joined the WU, he worked at the  Ontology Engineering Group (OEG) at Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (Spain), and the Dipartimento di Ingegneria Informatica Automatica e Gestionale at Sapienza Universit a di Roma (Italy).

Publications / Contact

Privacy by Design: Privacy Patterns

Olha Drozd is a teaching and research associate currently working on the Online Interactive Privacy Pattern Catalog. Before joining the institute for Management Information Systems at the WU she worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Information Systems at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Olha also worked as an IT project manager at DDM Studio- a digital production studio located in Kyiv, Ukraine. She managed digital production teams for such brands as Fox TV (US), Sesame Street, Chevrolet, Swisscom, AirFrance-KLM, Saatchi & Saatchi, Sanofi-Aventis, and others.  Olha’s research interests focus on privacy by design and privacy patterns.

Publications / Contact

Dr. Sabrina Kirrane joined the WU as a postdoctoral researcher in September 2015 and was the Founding Director of the Privacy & Sustainable Computing Lab. Prior to taking up the position at WU she was a researcher at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics, Ireland. Her PhD focused on the problem of access control for the Web of Data. Before that she spent several years working in Industry on topics around data integration and security, such as system security requirements and implementation in an application service provider environment. Sabrina’s research focuses on the privacy issues that can result from interlinked machine-readable data. Dr. Kirrane is a guest editor for the Journal of Web Semantics special issue on Security, Privacy and Policy for the Semantic Web and Linked Data and besides others organiser of the PrivOn workshop series on Society, Privacy and the Semantic Web – Policy and Technology.

Semantic Technology, Web Standards & Licenses

Simon Steyskal holds master’s degrees in Software Engineering & Internet Computing as well as Information & Knowledge Management, both from the Vienna University of Technology (TU) and joined WU in January 2014 as a PhD candidate under the supervision of Prof. Axel Polleres. He is also working as a research scientist for Siemens AG where he is involved in a joint research project between Siemens AG and WU. He is also an active member of the W3C RDF Data Shapes working group and involved in the standardization process of a W3C permissions and obligations expression language carried out by the W3C Permissions & Obligations Expression working group.

Publications / Contact

Digital Technology, Demonstrations, Social Credit System

Prof. Dr. Christian Göbel joined the Lab in December 2017. He is a University Professor of Modern China Studies at the University of Vienna, Department of East Asian Studies. A political scientist and sinologist by training, his research is concerned with the adaptability of the Chinese Party-State to social, economic and political challenges. He is especially interested in effects of digital technology on local governance in China. Data derived from expert interviews, expert surveys and web harvesting is processed by means of qualitative content analysis, text statistical methods and inferential statistics.

Publications / Contact

Fabian Fischer is a disciplinary hybrid, combining Science & Technology Studies with Computer Science. He is currently University Assistant (prae doc) at the Centre for Informatics and Society (C!S) at the TU Wien. His research interest is the study of algorithmic systems, particularly those that are data-driven, with a focus on marginalisation practices. Strong technical skills gathered during several years in research & development of data-driven systems (largely in EU-funded research projects) is combined with strongly empirical, qualitative social science research. This interdisciplinary expertise is also the foundation of his teaching on Critical Algorithm Studies at TU Wien.

Georg Reischauer is an Assistant Professor at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business. He received his PhD from the Technical University of Vienna. His research focuses on the nexus of digital strategy, digital organization, and digital sustainability.

Publications / Contact

Internet Law, Online Rule-Making, Human Rights in Digitality, Internet Governance

PD Mag. Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann, LL.M. (Harvard), joined as an associate researcher in 2019. In 2020 he was elected member of the Management Board. Matthias is co-leader of the Platform and Content Governance Research Group. Outside the lab, Matthias is Head of the Research Program Regulatory Structures and the Emergence of Rules in Online Spaces at the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI), Hamburg and Visiting Professor of international law at the University of Jena. At the Lab, he runs a multidisciplinary research project with Ben Wagner conducting freedom of expression governance analytics on user comment datasets of newspapers and information exchange sites. He studied international and Internet law in Graz, Geneva and Harvard Law School and completed his postdoctoral work at the Cluster of Excellence “The Emergence of Normative Orders” at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. Matthias has provided expertise for the German Bundestag, several DAX companies, foundations and international organizations, on Internet regulation, cybersecurity and human rights.

Rita Gsenger is a scientific employee at the Institute of Information Systems and New Media at Vienna University of Economics. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Vienna and a Master’s degree in Philosophy from the Leopold Franzens University Innsbruck. She is currently enrolled in the Interdisciplinary European Master’s program Cognitive Science at the University of Vienna. Her main research interests are Philosophy of Technology, Ethics and Human Computer Interaction from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Digital Technology, Demonstrations, Social Credit System

Prof. Dr. Christian Göbel joined the Lab in December 2017. He is a University Professor of Modern China Studies at the University of Vienna, Department of East Asian Studies. A political scientist and sinologist by training, his research is concerned with the adaptability of the Chinese Party-State to social, economic and political challenges. He is especially interested in effects of digital technology on local governance in China. Data derived from expert interviews, expert surveys and web harvesting is processed by means of qualitative content analysis, text statistical methods and inferential statistics.

Publications / Contact

Digital Politics, Online Activism, Technology Policy, and Human Rights

Media Governance, IP regulation and communications policy

Personal Data Ecosystems, Political Theory, Privacy and Philosophy

Niklas Kirchner joins the Institute of Information Systems and New Media as a scientific project employee for the EXPEDiTE project, investigating the impact of the new GDPR regulatory framework on the emergence of “human-centered” personal data ecosystems. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Economics from the University of Bayreuth and is currently enrolled in the Philosophy masters program at the University of Vienna (with support of a graduate stipend by the DAAD). He is focusing on interdisciplinary matters in practical philosophy, especially in Political Theory and Social Philosophy as well as Ethics and Philosophy of Economics. Previous professional affiliations include Media Consultancy, Medical Health as well as Human Rights.

Soheil Hosseini is a graphic designer and painter interested in digital art. He works on the intersection of visual arts and human-centric design of information systems. In particular, his work is focused on the improvement of end-users’ experience and the understandability of UIs. He has been involved in the design and evaluation of various web applications and services. Soheil Hosseini advocates a pluralist perspective on web engineering, in which experts from different disciplines such as engineers, social scientists, and artists work closely together with end-users during the design and implementation processes of UIs.

Anna Sophia Tiedeke, is a junior Researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Media Research │ Hans Bredow Institute in April 2019 in the research area “Regulatory Structures and the Emergence of Rules in Online Spaces“.

She studied law at the University of Hamburg and the Université Panthéon-Sorbonne I in Paris with a focus on European and International Law. During her studies she worked at the chair of Prof. Markus Kotzur at the Institute for International Affairs of the University of Hamburg and at the media law boutique Damm & Mann. Since 2016 she has been a member of the editorial board of the „Völkerrechtsblog“ – International Law and International Legal Thought. After her first state examination, she worked as a research assistant in an international commercial law firm in the field of EU regulation and policy advice in Brussels. During her legal clerkship, which she completed between 2017 and 2019, she worked for the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin, the law firm RAUE in the field of press law and the Senate Administration for Culture and Europe in Berlin. At the same time, she worked at the chair of Prof. Christian Calliess at the Freie Unversität Berlin as a research assistant.

In her PhD thesis, Anna Sophia Tiedeke focuses on the development of a new concept of the understanding of the state under international law in the era of the Internet.

Felicitas Rachinger studied law at the University of Vienna and University of Turku, Finland. She is currently a legal intern at a Namibian NGO and has previous working experience as a legal advisor in the field of anti-racism and online hate. During her studies, she focused on human rights and anti-discrimination law.

Internet Law, Online Rule-Making, Human Rights in Digitality, Internet Governance

PD Mag. Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann, LL.M. (Harvard), joined as an associate researcher in 2019. In 2020 he was elected member of the Management Board. Matthias is co-leader of the Platform and Content Governance Research Group. Outside the lab, Matthias is Head of the Research Program Regulatory Structures and the Emergence of Rules in Online Spaces at the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI), Hamburg and Visiting Professor of international law at the University of Jena. At the Lab, he runs a multidisciplinary research project with Ben Wagner conducting freedom of expression governance analytics on user comment datasets of newspapers and information exchange sites. He studied international and Internet law in Graz, Geneva and Harvard Law School and completed his postdoctoral work at the Cluster of Excellence “The Emergence of Normative Orders” at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. Matthias has provided expertise for the German Bundestag, several DAX companies, foundations and international organizations, on Internet regulation, cybersecurity and human rights.

Privacy and Data Ownership, Psychological Implications of Smart Technologies

Univ.Prof. Dr.Dr. Bernadette Kamleitner joined WU as a professor for Marketing with a special focus on Consumer Behavior in 2012. She is head of the Institute for Marketing and Consumer Research and has a background in both business and psychology. Her research focuses on the psychological underpinnings of consumer behaviors, including the way consumers perceive and deal with personal data and an increasing digitization of everyday phenomena. In particular, she is an internationally recognized expert on perceptions of ownership on which she has published and spoken in numerous internationally renowned fora.

Hooman Habibnia holds his bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Tehran. He is currently studying the Middle European Interdisciplinary Master’s program in the field of Cognitive Science (Mei: CogSci) at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. He joined the Sustainable Computing Lab as a research assistant in 2019. His interests vary from HCI, data-driven AI, human decision making, behavioral economics to predictive processing.

Privacy Notices & User Issues

Jana Korunovska is a research and teaching associate currently working on the impact of privacy notices on user’s privacy concerns and online behavior. As a psychologist, her research often focuses on user-related issues, most prominently privacy and ownership issues of personal data on the internet, especially in the social networking context. For this work, together with Prof. Dr. Sarah Spiekermann and Dr. Christine Bauer she won the CPDP 2013 Multidisciplinary Privacy Research Award. Her other research interests involve the impact of new media and technology on the affective, cognitive, and conative aspects of the end-users.

Publications / Contact

Media Governance, IP regulation and communications policy

Rita Gsenger is a scientific employee at the Institute of Information Systems and New Media at Vienna University of Economics. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Vienna and a Master’s degree in Philosophy from the Leopold Franzens University Innsbruck. She is currently enrolled in the Interdisciplinary European Master’s program Cognitive Science at the University of Vienna. Her main research interests are Philosophy of Technology, Ethics and Human Computer Interaction from an interdisciplinary perspective.