Next Generation Internet will keep you in control of your data

Researchers at the Vienna University of Economics and Business are working to make it easier for users to keep control of their data online, making it more secure.

The research project, Policy Enabled Next Generation Internet (PENNI), aims to develop the foundations for the Next Generation Internet (NGI) – an internet that is decentralised, free, transparent, and serves in the interest of the people.

It will not only give citizens, companies, and organisations more control over where their data are stored and how they are processed, but also makes it easier to navigate the internet and find information that is relevant and reliable.

“Data misuse and misinformation are key problems associated with the use of the internet. Today, we still only have very little control over our personal data on the web, the moment we go online, we put our data in the hands of third parties and we are now working to change that,” says Sabrina Kirrane, an assistant professor at WU’s Institute for Information Systems and New Media.

In her research, Sabrina Kirrane is working on “policy languages” (for a policy-enabled internet) and other tools and technologies that allow for automated data processing and are able to automatically check compliance with relevant policies.

The researcher hopes to develop a NGI framework for integrating machine-understandable policies; to develop an NGI architecture that gives priority to values such as trust and transparency to combat antisocial behavior, fake news, and bias; and finally, enhance standard web protocols so that they can be used for exchanging data, information, and the associated policies.


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For more information, or to speak to Professor Kirrane, contact Katie Hurley at BlueSky PR on khurley@bluesky-pr.com or call +44 (0) 7538412793.