This thesis resolves around problems arising for the existing legal framework from the use of novel software-­‐based policing tools during criminal investigations. The increasing dependence on information and communication technologies and the Internet means that more aspects of people’s lives move online, and crime follows them. This has triggered the development of innovative, autonomous investigative technologies that are increasingly replacing human officers for the policing of the online sphere. While only recently discussions of the legal status of embodied and unembodied robotical devices have gained more widespread attention, discussions of the legal status of autonomous agent technology are not new. They have focussed however in the past on applications in the private domain, enabling contract formation online. No systematic study has so far been carried out that looks at the use of autonomous agent technology when deployed by state actors, to fulfil core state functions. This thesis starts with the hypothesis that the use of automated, intelligent devices to replicate core police functions in the online world will increase in the future. Looking at first emerging technologies, but with an eye towards future deployment of much more capable software tools that fulfil policing functions on the Internet, this thesis looks at the challenges this poses for regulators and software developers. Based on extensive qualitative research interviews with stakeholders from two different jurisdictions (Germany & UK) this thesis finds that these novel policing technologies challenge existing legal frameworks, which are still premised on the parameters of the offline world. It therefore develops an alternative governance model for these policing tools, which enables their law-­‐compliant use and prevents rights violations of suspects. In doing so it draws upon both worlds, the technical and the legal, while also incorporating the empirical research results from the interviews with experts. The first part of this thesis analyses the technical foundations of these software-­‐based policing tools. Here, one of the key findings is that the current governance system focuses on ex-­‐ante authorisation of very specific, individual software tools without developing a systematic classification. This contradicts the principle of sustainable law making. To overcome this piecemeal approach, as a first contribution to existing research this work defines a new class of investigative technologies – mobile, intelligent and autonomous (MIA) policing tools ‐ based on the findings of the technical analysis. Identifying such a natural class of present and future technologies that pose the same type of legal issues should facilitate the sustainable governance of these new policing tools. The second part of this thesis analyses two specific legal issues: cross-­jurisdictional investigations and the evidentiary value of the seized data. These issues were identified as most pressing by the experts interviewed for this work. This analysis reveals that investigative activities of MIA tools are potentially in conflict with international law principles and criminal procedure law. In order to gain legitimacy, these new policing tools need to operate within the parameters of the existing legal framework. This thesis argues that given the unique technical capabilities of MIA tools, the primary approach to achieving this is to assign legal responsibility to these tools. The third part of this thesis develops a novel governance approach to ensure that MIA tools operate within the parameters of the legal framework, and therefore obtain legitimacy and relevance, also with regard to the investigative results. This approach builds on existing research identifying code as a regulatory modality and contributes to the field of legal theory. It constitutes a solution for the governance problems of MIA tools, however, it requires currently lacking collaboration among stakeholders and cross-­disciplinary research.

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In this thesis, I investigate the concept of Internet regulation and its implementation by examining the Convention on Cybercrime, which regulates the European Union (EU) and non EU countries. I examine the approaches taken toward the Convention on Cybercrime in two different socio-economic and political systems: Canada, a modern democracy that only signed the Convention, and Romania, an ex-communist democracy that both signed and ratified it. With this Convention, the Council of Europe has claimed that one model of global Internet regulation is appropriate for all countries. I argue that the infrastructure and legal, economic, and socio-cultural aspects of local cultures make the global homogenous regulation of the Internet impractical, therefore regulation on a national level would be more effective. I also try to contribute to current research by studying the complexity of the global regulation of Internet crimes by demonstrating: the importance of democracy and technology for public policy frameworks for cybercrime, by describing; the limitations of the model represented by the global monolithic Convention on Cybercrime, and by suggesting that a universal democratic model of global Internet regulation is utopian and does not address the individual needs of each country.

From 1995 the Internet attracted commercial investment, but financially measurable benefits and competitive advantage proved elusive. Usage for personal communication and business information only slowly translated into commercial transactions. This reflects a unique feature of Internet development. Unlike other media of the 19th and 20th centuries, widespread Internet use preceded commercial investment. The early military and research use led to an architecture that poorly supported the certainty and security requirements of commercial transactions. Subsequent attempts to align this architecture with commercial transactional requirements were expensive and mostly unsuccessful. This multi-disciplinary thesis describes these commercial factors from historical, usage, technical, regulatory and commercial perspectives. It provides a new and balanced understanding in a subject area dominated by poor communication between separate perspectives.

This thesis examines the application of traditional jurisdictional doctrines to online activity. It analyses not only to what extent, and why, the Internet challenges existing principles allocating regulatory competence, but the factors which shape, and must shape, the regulatory responses to these challenges, in an attempt to create an analytical framework within which the search for viable solutions can begin. The overarching argument made in this thesis is that the keys to viable future Internet regulation are deeply embedded in past and present regulation and that we cannot simply look for the most efficient legal solutions, regardless of how they fit within existing laws. This would be inconsistent with the law's basic function to answer the need for certainty and predictability. Building upon this fundamental premise, it is further argued, and shown, that an understanding of the public law - private law dichotomy within the existing jurisdictional framework, as well as its deeply entrenched status, is essential for appreciating the severity of the jurisdictional problems caused by the Internet and actual and likely regulatory responses to them. It is argued that this explains why both sets of rules have consistently accommodated transnational online activity differently, giving rise to different problems - problems which ultimately touch upon fundamental legal notions, such as formal justice, the rule of law or obedience to law which cannot but set further outer parameters of the search for solutions to the jurisdictional problems triggered by the Internet.

The more Internet is used for lawful economical and social communication, the more space appears for possible illegal activities. The freedom of speech in the Internet is a very important condition to maintain the democracy. Despite this, freedom of speech can be limited in behalf of the other essential human rights. One of the most important reasons to control the freedom of speech in the Internet - is to protect children and minorities from the illegal and harmful content. It is essential to stop child pornography , to prevent the society from xenophobic and racist hatreds spreading on the Internet. The illegal spreading of spam, which contain illegal commercial information about drugs, alcohol and tobacco is also the target of regulation and control. While researching the giving topics, we came to the conclusion that legal regulation of Internet content has features of globalism and unification. This tendency comes out of the specific architecture of the Internet, that allows the users of the Internet ignore the borders of the national states. We raised a question: do national states have to comply to the global nature of the Internet and to regulate Internet using international legal standards and sacrify their own national tendencies of regulation? We noticed that it is impossible to expect the legal regulation of the Internet will become united because of the cultural, economical, political and social divergences among the national countries. As we admitted... [to full text] / The more Internet is used for lawful economical and social communication, the more space appears for possible illegal activities. The freedom of speech in the Internet is a very important condition to maintain the democracy. Despite this, freedom of speech can be limited in behalf of the other essential human rights. One of the most important reasons to control the freedom of speech in the Internet - is to protect children and minorities from the illegal and harmful content. It is essential to stop child pornography , to prevent the society from xenophobic and racist hatreds spreading on the Internet.

The harmful Internet content, as one of the main problems related to the birth of Internet, has already attracted attention of international and national institutions. Regardless of two main problems arising in this field – the global nature of Internet and the subjective nature of malignancy, it‘s almost decade as European Union and the Council of Europe are trying to solve harmful Internet material related questions in such ways, that would be acceptable to all the region. The author of this work suggests that basis of Lithuanian law should be reviewed and the approach to the tendencies of international regulation should be more critical – special attention should be paid when implementing self-regulatory mechanisms.

O presente trabalho analisa a formação da cidade digital nas relações sociais, ressaltando os efeitos da garantia do direito à privacidade no ambiente dos navegantes de sites e redes sociais, em função das repercussões jurídicas do vazamento de informações da vida pessoal dos usuários da rede, e do tratamento dos dados coletados pelos prestadores de serviço. Através do ciberespaço formam-se comunidades virtuais que ultrapassam a necessidade de localidade e sociabilidade, criando um isolamento social e abandonando as interações face a face em ambientes reais, originando uma sociabilidade baseada no individualismo. Avaliamos os novos padrões de interação que se originam nesta nova formatação de coletividade informacional e suas repercussões no âmbito do direito. Em uma perspectiva mais detalhada, esse estudo indica quais as hipóteses de responsabilidade civil dos provedores na Internet em decorrência de atos ilícitos cometidos por terceiros e as alternativas de um sistema de tutela da privacidade à proteção de dados, face à lesão no ambiente informacional. O levantamento das possíveis situações de responsabilização civil foi efetuado através da análise da jurisprudência e da doutrina dominante, ressaltando os aspectos fáticos que caracterizam sua formatação. Esse modelo se impõe, através de uma relação hierárquica a uma multiplicidade de indivíduos, criando um encarceramento perfeito através do exercício do biopoder. Tais papéis são reforçados por uma cultura consumista e a sociedade do espetáculo, que transforma o indivíduo em mercadoria levantando perfis de usuários conectados em rede, propiciando uma categorização dos consumidores. Nesse contexto, apresentamos os riscos de uma sociedade de vigilância que se apresenta factível como um produto das relações de mercado, que possibilita dispor livremente de um conjunto crescente de informações. Esta constante vigilância invade todos os espaços, custodiando nosso comportamento independente do tempo, com uma implacável memória no âmbito das comunicações eletrônicas, tornando nosso passado eternamente visível e fazendo surgir situações constrangedoras a nos assombrar. / The present work analyzes the formation of the Digital City within social rela-tions, focusing on the effects of the warranty of the right to privacy for users of the virtual environment, namely, websites and social networks. This study was motivated by the juridical effects, both of the leakage of personal information of the Internet users, and of the treatment of data collected by its service providers. The virtual communities which are formed by means of cyberspace surpass the need for locality and sociability. Since they generate social isolation and the abandonment of face-to-face interactions in real environments, they help creating a sociability pattern based on individualism. In this work, the new interaction patterns originated in this new format of informational collectivity and its effects concerning laws will be analyzed. More specifically, this study presents a number of hypotheses of civil liability of the Internet service providers in view of illicit acts by other parties, as well as alternatives, as far as a privacy tutelage system regarding data protection is concerned, in view of injury in the informational environment. The mapping of possible situations of civil liability charging was conducted by means of analysis, both of jurisprudence and of the prevailing doctrine, and it highlighted the factual aspects of the case which characterize its formatting. The model under study is imposed upon a multiplicity of individuals, thus creating a perfect incarceration by means of the exertion of biopower. The roles of the Internet surfers within informational society are reinforced by a consumerist culture and by the society of spectacle, which turns the individual into goods, once it researches the profiles of the Internet-connected users, and thus categorizes them as consumers. In this sense, this work discusses the risks of a society of vigilance, which functions as a product in market relations and makes it possible disposing freely of a growing number of information. Such constant vigilance invades all environments and, regardless of chronological time, monitors our behavior by means of an implacable memory, making our past eternally visible as well as generating constraining situations which astound us.

O presente trabalho analisa a formação da cidade digital nas relações sociais, ressaltando os efeitos da garantia do direito à privacidade no ambiente dos navegantes de sites e redes sociais, em função das repercussões jurídicas do vazamento de informações da vida pessoal dos usuários da rede, e do tratamento dos dados coletados pelos prestadores de serviço. Através do ciberespaço formam-se comunidades virtuais que ultrapassam a necessidade de localidade e sociabilidade, criando um isolamento social e abandonando as interações face a face em ambientes reais, originando uma sociabilidade baseada no individualismo. Avaliamos os novos padrões de interação que se originam nesta nova formatação de coletividade informacional e suas repercussões no âmbito do direito. Em uma perspectiva mais detalhada, esse estudo indica quais as hipóteses de responsabilidade civil dos provedores na Internet em decorrência de atos ilícitos cometidos por terceiros e as alternativas de um sistema de tutela da privacidade à proteção de dados, face à lesão no ambiente informacional. O levantamento das possíveis situações de responsabilização civil foi efetuado através da análise da jurisprudência e da doutrina dominante, ressaltando os aspectos fáticos que caracterizam sua formatação. Esse modelo se impõe, através de uma relação hierárquica a uma multiplicidade de indivíduos, criando um encarceramento perfeito através do exercício do biopoder. Tais papéis são reforçados por uma cultura consumista e a sociedade do espetáculo, que transforma o indivíduo em mercadoria levantando perfis de usuários conectados em rede, propiciando uma categorização dos consumidores. Nesse contexto, apresentamos os riscos de uma sociedade de vigilância que se apresenta factível como um produto das relações de mercado, que possibilita dispor livremente de um conjunto crescente de informações. Esta constante vigilância invade todos os espaços, custodiando nosso comportamento independente do tempo, com uma implacável memória no âmbito das comunicações eletrônicas, tornando nosso passado eternamente visível e fazendo surgir situações constrangedoras a nos assombrar. / The present work analyzes the formation of the Digital City within social rela-tions, focusing on the effects of the warranty of the right to privacy for users of the virtual environment, namely, websites and social networks. This study was motivated by the juridical effects, both of the leakage of personal information of the Internet users, and of the treatment of data collected by its service providers. The virtual communities which are formed by means of cyberspace surpass the need for locality and sociability. Since they generate social isolation and the abandonment of face-to-face interactions in real environments, they help creating a sociability pattern based on individualism. In this work, the new interaction patterns originated in this new format of informational collectivity and its effects concerning laws will be analyzed. More specifically, this study presents a number of hypotheses of civil liability of the Internet service providers in view of illicit acts by other parties, as well as alternatives, as far as a privacy tutelage system regarding data protection is concerned, in view of injury in the informational environment. The mapping of possible situations of civil liability charging was conducted by means of analysis, both of jurisprudence and of the prevailing doctrine, and it highlighted the factual aspects of the case which characterize its formatting. The model under study is imposed upon a multiplicity of individuals, thus creating a perfect incarceration by means of the exertion of biopower. The roles of the Internet surfers within informational society are reinforced by a consumerist culture and by the society of spectacle, which turns the individual into goods, once it researches the profiles of the Internet-connected users, and thus categorizes them as consumers. In this sense, this work discusses the risks of a society of vigilance, which functions as a product in market relations and makes it possible disposing freely of a growing number of information. Such constant vigilance invades all environments and, regardless of chronological time, monitors our behavior by means of an implacable memory, making our past eternally visible as well as generating constraining situations which astound us.

With the new challenges of the digital world associated with disinformation, data breaches, and cybercrimes (Cadwalladr & Graham-Harrison, 2018; Connolly et al., 2016; Shipley & Bowker, 2013) many countries nowadays discuss approaches to Internet regulation. In Ukraine, which faced propaganda tactics employed by Russia as a part of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict (Yurkova, 2018), the need for information security in recent years became a major challenge. In 2017, authorities of Ukraine addressed the challenge by introducing sanctions to the most-used Russian web-platforms, including social networks Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki, search engine Yandex, and many other services. This study analyzed the discourse that was formed around the decision. The work incorporates the model of critical discourse analysis by Fairclough (1995a) and framing analysis by Pan & Kosicki (1993). This qualitative study analyzed materials from Ukrainian online media, TV stories, user comments, and political speeches from 16th-17th May 2017 – the dates when the decision on blocking of Russian web-sources was announced to the Ukrainian public. The research answers the questions about the dominant discourses in society regarding the approach of the authorities to Internet regulation, the main arguments and counter-arguments, and media framing. The results show that the discussion was locked in a trap of two dominant discourses of freedom of speech and national security, whereas alternative measures to restrictions were not represented on the public agenda.