Konrad Kollnig works on building a more just and equitable digital economy. He particularly focuses on market power in digital platforms and AI, ethical hacking for user autonomy, privacy in mobile apps, and relevant laws. To this end, he leads the RegTech4AI project that seeks to prepare the law for the age of AI, by innovatively combining legal and technical methods. The project is running for five years, funds six full-time researchers, and has a total budget of 2.1 million Euros.
At the moment, he is assistant professor at the Law & Tech Lab of Maastricht University’s Law Faculty, a leading university for EU law. He holds a PhD and MSc (Distinction) in Computer Science from the University of Oxford, and a BSc (Distinction) in Computer Science and Mathematics from RWTH Aachen. His PhD thesis received the Stefano Rodotà Award 2024 of the Council of Europe, which is the most prestigious award in his field of research and is awarded to one PhD thesis annually.
His work has been published in leading academic venues, like PETS, FAccT, SOUPS, and the Internet Policy Review. His research has been covered by Forbes, Wired, Vox, Der Standard, New Scientist, La Stampa, Le Temps, TechCrunch, and other international media. He’s been selected for the award of the Future of Privacy Forum for the Best Student Privacy Paper for Policymakers 2022, and for the Best Paper Award of ConPro’23. Konrad led the winning team in the United Nations Privacy Competition 2022, ahead of 195 other teams worldwide, including from Harvard, ETH Zurich, and U Toronto. His work has been cited in various policy documents, including those by the European Union, the OECD, the Nordic Council, the US Federal Trade Commission, the Bundeskartellamt, and the UK Competition and Markets Authority.
Konrad is the creator of TrackerControl, which is an Android privacy app with 200,000+ downloads. The app exposes hidden data flows from apps to companies. It is available in 21 languages thanks to the help of the TrackerControl community.
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