Books I have co-authored

“Delete” – a new thought-provoking book about the Net and Information Policy

What will happen to society and the individual if everything is remembered forever and nothing is forgotten? This thought-provoking question is addressed by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger (information policy professor, National University of Singapore) in the book “Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age” (Princeton Univ. Press 2009). His pessimistic answer is that:

“Perfect, [...]

A privacy backlash on its way: telcos will be in center of the storm

After 9/11 it was inevitable that the trade-off between civil liberties and security would shift in favor of security. The thinking of this period can neatly be summarized in a quote by Tony Blair who said something like “if there is a new terrorist attack, people will not ask why we infringed on civil liberties [...]

Data retention has been around for decades

Currently there is a heated debate in Sweden in which privacy advocates and civil rights activists are criticizing the EU directive about tele traffic data retention (Directive 2006/24/EC). The EU directive requires operators to store traffic information about every phone call that is made, every SMS, every website visited, etc. for a period of up [...]