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Rainer Rehak

Associate Researcher

Rainer Rehak is part of the research group “Digitalization, Sustainability, and Participation” at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, he is an associated researcher at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB) and is currently doing his PhD on systemic IT security and societal data protection at the TU Berlin.

He studied computer science and philosophy in Berlin and Hong Kong and has been working on the implications of the computerization of society for over 15 years. His research fields include data protection, IT security, state hacking, computer science and ethics, fictions of technology, digitization and sustainability, convivial and democratic digital technology, and the implications and limits of automation through AI systems.

He also publishes regularly in non-scientific outlets and is an expert witness for parliaments (e.g., the German Bundestag) and courts (e.g., the German Constitutional Court). Together with other digital policy and environmental organizations, he initiated the "Bits & Bäume" conference for digitization and sustainability.

Positions at Weizenbaum Institut

Associate Researcher

Research Focus: Digital Technologies in Society

Research Group: Digitalization, Sustainability, and Participation

Associate Researcher

Research Focus: Digital Infrastructures in Democracy

Research Group: Technology, Power and Domination

 

Doctoral Researcher until 14 September 2022:

Research Group: Responsibility and the Internet of Things

Research Group: Quantification and Social Regulation

Committees and functions

  • Member of the ACM
  • Member of the working group "Sustainability" of the Weizenbaum Institute
  • Co-chair of the Forum InformatikerInnen für Frieden und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung (FIfF) (Forum for Computer Scientists for Peace and Social Responsibility)
  • Member of the steering committee of the specialist group on computer science and ethics of the Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI)
  • Member of the steering committee of the Bits & Trees Conference
  • Member of the Jury for the Weizenbaum-Award and Weizenbaum study award of the FIfF
  • Member of the programme committee of the Chaos Communication Congress.

Fields of research

  • Data protection
  • IT Security
  • Governmental Hacking
  • Informatics, Ethics and Society
  • Fictions of Technology
  • Digitalization and Sustainability
  • Implications and limits of automation through AI systems

Miscellaneous

Social media

Contact
Email
rainer.rehak@weizenbaum-institut.de
Organisation
Weizenbaum-Institut e.V.

Publications

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