Member Directory

Thorsten heads Stiftung Neue Verantwortung's research on surveillance and democratic governance. He created the European Intelligence Oversight Network (EION) and is a Principal Investigator in the new collaborative research project GUARDINT, designed to address and to redress the gap between increasingly transnational surveillance practices and still largely national accountability mechanisms. Thorsten gave testimony before the European Parliament and the Bundestag on intelligence legislation, and his work appeared in various media outlets. He is a member of the advisory board on Europe/Transatlantic of the Heinrich Boell Foundation in Berlin and the scientific committee of the Cyber and Data Security Lab at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Thorsten holds a doctorate degree in political science from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. In the past, Thorsten worked as Senior Fellow at the Brandenburg Institute for Society and Security, The Hague Institute for Global Justice, and as Advisor for the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF). As Transatlantic Post-Doc Fellow for International Relations and Security (TAPIR), Thorsten studied national surveillance policies at the French Institute for International Relations (ifri) in Paris and the RAND Corporation and the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C.

Kilian Vieth manages Stiftung Neue Verantwortung’s work on digital rights, surveillance, and democracy. He is the project manager for the European Intelligence Oversight Network (EION), which provides European intelligence oversight officials and other experts a space for regular and structured exchange. As a researcher in the GUARDINT project, Kilian studies the potentials and limits of overseeing surveillance and works on the development of an intelligence oversight index and a surveillance law database. His research focusses on the democratic control of intelligence and reform approaches for rights-based and more efficient intelligence and surveillance policy in Germany and Europe. Beyond that, his research interests include digital human rights and critical security studies. He was invited to testify before the parliament of Hesse on regional intelligence legislation. Kilian previously worked on different research projects at the Center for Internet and Human Rights (CIHR) at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, where he is still a Fellow. He has also worked as a consultant and project manager in political campaigning at a communications consultancy in Berlin. He holds a dual master’s degree in Political Science and European Affairs from Sciences Po Paris (France) and Freie Universität Berlin (Germany) and a bachelor’s degree in Public Management and Governance from Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen (Germany).

Tomaso leads Privacy International's policy development, as well as their advocacy and policy team. He develops the organisation's international advocacy with the UN, the EU, and other relevant intergovernmental bodies. Previously he worked for Child Soldiers International and for Amnesty International’s (AI) International Secretariat, in the International Law and Policy Program, where he was legal and policy advisor. His main responsibilities included providing advice on international human rights and humanitarian law, drafting intervention before human rights courts and bodies and representing the organization in meetings of UN human rights law experts. Tomaso is an Italian lawyer and has a Law Degree from the Law College in Ferrara (Italy).

Cheryl Gwyn was appointed as New Zealand’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security commencing 5 May 2014, for a three year term and was reappointed in May 2017 for a further three years. She is the first Inspector-General to be appointed under amended legislation which
significantly expands the Inspector-General’s powers and resources and removes the requirement that the appointee be a retired Judge. The Inspector-General’s role includes reviewing the legality and propriety of intelligence and security agency activities and investigating complaints relating to the agencies. The Inspector-General has power to initiate her own inquiries. Ms Gwyn has broad public law experience, having spent ten years as Deputy Solicitor-General in the New Zealand Crown Law Office, where she provided legal advice and representation to Ministers and Departments, principally in constitutional matter, including indigenous rights and human rights issues. Latterly she provided advice to New Zealand’s intelligence community. That position was preceded by two years managing a large policy group, as Deputy Secretary for Justice. Before entering the public service, Ms Gwyn was a litigation partner at two of New Zealand’s largest law firms. In August 2019 Ms Gwyn was appointed as a Judge of the High Court of New Zealand

Jan-David manages SNV’s work on digital rights and intelligence governance. His efforts are directed at strengthening democratic oversight of government surveillance and facilitating public discourse around security and liberty in a digital age. Furthermore, he is interested in the intersection of democracy and media in the public sphere as well as human rights and critical security studies. Previously, Jan-David worked as an investigative reporter and editor for the Bangkok Post and as a news editor for the Oxford Student. He was also a part of the GIZ’s “Decentralisation Reforms” project in Ghana. Jan-David holds an M.Phil. in International Relations from the University of Oxford and a B.A. in Integrated Social Sciences from Jacobs University Bremen and the University of Edinburgh.

Based in New York, Uncode is a blog by John Doe. His posts explore modern web design and development through photos and quotes by influential architects, engineers, and creatives.