Member Directory
Thomas Lohninger is Executive Director of the digital rights NGO epicenter.works in Vienna, Austria. He is Senior Fellow of the Mozilla Foundation working on Net Neutrality in the European Union. The Center of Internet and Society of the Stanford Law School holds him as a non-residential Fellow. He worked in Brussels on the European Net Neutrality regulation as Policy Advisor for European Digital Rights and is on the board of EDRi since 2019. His background is in IT and Cultural- and Social Anthropology.
Ronja Kniep is a research fellow in the research group ‘Politics of Digitalisation’ at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and a PhD candidate at the Freie Universität Berlin (FU). Her research focuses on communications surveillance, intelligence cooperation, intelligence oversight, and digital policy. In the research project “Intelligence Oversight and intelligence networks: Who guards the Guardians?” (GUARD//INT), Ronja works on an intelligence oversight index, oversight of information sharing, and analyses the justification and contestation of surveillance in German cases of strategic litigation.
Lotte Houwing works as a researcher and policy advisor at Bits of Freedom, a Dutch NGO for internet freedoms. There she leads the government surveillance programme where she focuses on policy regulating the capabilities of the secret services with a strong focus on protections of the rights of privacy and freedom of communication. In this capacity she filed a successful complaint procedure against the unlawful detention of bulk datasets by the Dutch intelligence agencies. She has a special interest in the analysis of power in relationships between government institutions and people. She has a background in philosophy and graduated cum laude from her research master in law on the Dutch Intelligence and Security Services Act 2017 at the University of Groningen. When she finds time she publishes on the use of technlogy by the police. But mostly she will be found in her garden.
Arild Færaas is the communications adviser in the secretariat of the Norwegian Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Intelligence and Security Services (The EOS Committee). He previously worked as a communications adviser for The Norwegian Board of Technology and
as a journalist for Aftenposten and other Norwegian local and national newspapers.
Karen Taylor is Chair of the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) and Director of Advocacy at Each One Teach One (EOTO e.V.), based in Germany. In addition, Karen is a member of the coordination group for the implementation of the "UN-Decade for people of African descent" in Germany.
Dr. Oskar Josef Gstrein is Assistant Professor at Campus Fryslân - University of Groningen, where he is also a member of the Data Research Centre. He collaborates in the EU Horizon 2020 project Cutting Crime Impact and teaches in the graduate program 'Governance and Law in Digital Society' as well as the minor 'Data Wise'. At the same time, he is external lecturer at the Europa-Institut of the University of Saarland in Germany.
Wouter de Ridder is a veteran of European intelligence oversight, having been the Secretary for the Belgian Standing Intelligence Agencies Review Committee (Vast Comité I) for over 25 years. He also acts as security officer for the committee. Further, Wouter is the Secretary (registrar) of the Belgian Appeal Body for Security Clearances, Certificates and Advices, and an expert at the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF). He holds a Master of Law from KU Leuven.
Paula is a Privacy and Civil Liberties Engineer at Palantir Technologies where she leads customer engagements on the technical implementation of EU data protection law. She advises public and private sector clients, including automotive, aerospace, drug development, health insurance, media, telecommunications, customs, and law enforcement.
Paula holds a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude in French, European Cultural Studies and Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University, a Master of Public Policy from the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, and a Master of Arts in Media, Culture, and Communication from New York University. She is a certified Data Protection Officer under the German Association for Data Protection and Data Security.