IT:U Researcher wins MyData Global Awards for Thought Leadership on Human Rights & Technology
IT:U researcher Soheil Human has been honored with the MyData Award for 2024 and 2025. The international recognition highlights not only Soheil’s visionary work but also reflects IT:U’s commitment to shaping ethical, inclusive, and human-centric digital solutions.
Redesigning Privacy for People: The ADPC Project
At the heart of this recognition is ADPC – Advanced Digital Protection Control—a technology designed to strengthen online privacy and digital rights. ADPC enables seamless, human-compatible exchanges of privacy and other human rights data between users and service providers across browsers, mobile apps, IoT devices, and AR/VR platforms.
A familiar example is the issue of cookie banners. Most users face confusing, repetitive consent pop-ups that lead to frustration and privacy fatigue. ADPC addresses this by embedding standardized privacy controls directly into browsers or client-side systems. Preferences are stored and applied automatically, making consent simple, consistent, and easy to manage. ADPC’s inclusive design supports a broad range of users, including vulnerable groups. Frameworks like ADPC-KIDS help families and children manage privacy with confidence. In 2023, the project was awarded the Austrian Internet Foundation Award in AI for its ethical, AI-driven approach to protecting digital rights and promoting human empowerment.
Human Rights and Technology at IT:U
Soheil Human is part of IT:U’s Human Rights and Technology research group led by Professor Ben Wagner, which investigates how digital infrastructures can protect and promote fundamental rights such as privacy, freedom of expression, and democracy. Led by Professor Ben Wagner, the group brings together expertise from computer science, law, social sciences, and science and technology studies. Their work focuses on how digital systems impact society—and how they can be shaped to serve the public good. From algorithmic accountability to digital regulation, the group develops applied solutions that connect research, policy, and real-world change.
More About Soheil Human and the MyData Global Awards
Soheil Human is a researcher at IT:U and an assistant professor at the WU Vienna where he directs the Sustainable Computing Lab. His work bridges cognitive science, AI, ethics, and human rights, with a focus on inclusive and human-compatible solutions. The MyData Global Awards recognize leadership in advancing fair and sustainable digital practices—values that are deeply embedded in both Soheil’s research and IT:U’s mission to shape ethical, interdisciplinary digital transformation.