Digital Technologies Policy Laboratory

Digital technologies are reshaping the ways that we interact, work, and govern. Projects in the Digital Technologies Policy Lab (DTPL) are distinctly sociotechnical. Addressing these contemporary challenges requires an equally interdisciplinary approach. For instance:

• Harnessing the full potential of the rapidly growing Internet of Things (IoT) requires we invest in policy and regulation that demand the best IoT security standards before products leave the production floor and the kinds of expert industry collaboration necessary to keep IoT security standards and devices up-to-date as emerging vulnerabilities are identified in the wild.   
• The use of artificial intelligence in critical sectors such as healthcare raises serious concerns about patient safety, security, the protection of fundamental rights, and the resilience of the system altogether. These changes require complex adaptations to ensure the preparedness of clinical staff, healthcare system managers, medical device manufacturers, infrastructure suppliers, standards-making bodies, and regulators.  
• Innovations in the scope, scale, magnitude, and sophistication of criminals’ use of digital technologies require law enforcement and private cybersecurity communities to find equally innovative ways to combine their capabilities – within domestic contexts, and across organizational and jurisdictional boundaries – in the fight against transnational cybercrime. 
• Our social, political, and economic lives’ dependence on global communication demands we better understand, sustain and update the diverse non-state institutions and data governance practices that keep the Internet’s infrastructure glued together in a secure and stable way.   
• As disinformation campaigns become even more pervasive, social media platforms and government actors are wrestling with how to design, incent, and deploy effective fact-checking interventions. 

These kinds of wicked digital technology policy issues have profound implications for social engagement, economic growth, the provision of public goods, domestic and international security, and our fundamental rights. The scope, scale, and pace of change intrinsic in these challenges means that the formulation of digital technology policies designed to address these issues must be able to not only keep pace but also adapt. 

To understand the real-world factors and feedback mechanisms shaping contemporary and emerging digital technology policy challenges, DTPL projects bring together experts and practitioners from across policy, non-profit, civil society, standards-making, and technology communities. Integrating these diverse viewpoints provides the kinds of interdisciplinary perspectives that are increasingly required to understand and evaluate the complex mix of measures and interventions needed for effective digital technology management, policy, and strategy development. Taken together, our projects offer rigorous, interdisciplinary analysis geared to developing real-world solutions focused on reaping the benefits of the unprecedented opportunities that come with technological change. 

STEaPP Contributors