The MyData Global Awards 2024 and 2025 have brought international recognition to research supported by netidee, highlighting the global impact of its funded initiatives on privacy, data protection, and digital ethics. The awards were presented to Soheil Human, who led several projects funded by netidee that have advanced human-compatible approaches to digital innovation and privacy protection.

Advancing Human-Compatible Privacy: The ADPC Initiative

Among the influential outcomes of netidee’s support is the Advanced Digital Protection Control (ADPC) framework—an open, interoperable, inclusive and ethically grounded privacy infrastructure. ADPC enables transparent communication of privacy-related requests, information, consent and preferences between users and service providers across browsers, mobile applications, IoT devices, and immersive technologies such as AR and VR.

The initiative directly addresses a fundamental weakness in today’s digital ecosystem: the lack of internet protocols for communication of "privacy data" and user-friendly and human-compatible privacy tools. By embedding standardized privacy controls into browsers or client-side systems, ADPC allows requests, preferences, and decisions to be communicated, stored, interpreted, and applied automatically when required—ensuring a consistent, human-compatible, and legally sound user experience. In 2023, the initiative was further recognized with the Austrian Internet Foundation Award in AI for its ethical and AI-based approach to protecting digital rights.

Protecting Children’s Digital Privacy: ADPC-KIDS

Through ongoing netidee support, interdisciplinary teams of researchers, engineers, and activists are tackling one of the most critical and complex challenges in the digital age: the invasion of children’s privacy online.

Nearly all children and parents interact daily with connected technologies—from IoT-based toys to games and mobile apps—yet few systems provide tools that enable parents to effectively manage or enforce their children’s privacy and consent rights. The ADPC-KIDS framework addresses this challenge by offering a lawfully and technically enforceable parental privacy control system that is also human-compatible.

At its core lies a centralized parental control panel, empowering parents to manage and withdraw consent, oversee how data about their children are collected and shared, and ensure compliance across diverse devices and platforms.

Current consent mechanisms often allow children to provide their own data permissions, creating ethical and legal risks, while many devices lack appropriate privacy interfaces. ADPC-KIDS—developed under netidee funding—resolves these issues by establishing a transparent, enforceable, and human-compatible privacy ecosystem that empowers families and protects vulnerable users.

A Vision Shared with netidee

The international recognition through the MyData Global Awards, received by Soheil Human, underscores the global relevance and excellence of netidee-funded research. These projects—ADPC, ADPC-IoT, ADPC-KIDS, and GUARDIAN—demonstrate how netidee’s support enables the creation of open, inclusive, and ethically robust technologies that put human dignity, rights and agency at the core of digital innovation.

Through sustained investment in interdisciplinary and rights-based research, netidee continues to shape Europe’s leadership in human-compatible privacy and data governance. The success of these initiatives affirms the strength of netidee’s mission: to empower individuals, foster trust, and ensure that digital transformation remains aligned with human values and social responsibility.