Technology is never just technical.
We ask who shapes it — and whom it serves.
Computing for Good is an interdisciplinary research team at Maastricht University's Law & Tech Lab. We audit AI systems, investigate apps and online platforms, and build tools and evidence that help hold technology to account.
Research Themes
AI & Data Regulation
What would it take to make AI regulation work in practice?
We examine the gap between legal obligations and technical practice — from AI risk disclosures in corporate filings to watermarking in generative AI systems. Our aim is to identify where compliance can be measured and enforcement strengthened.
Platform Power & Systemic Risks
How can outsiders scrutinise the platforms that shape public life?
We study how researchers, regulators, and civil society can gain meaningful access to platform data and assess systemic risks to democracy and public debate under the Digital Services Act.
Privacy & Digital Wellbeing
How can people reshape technology around their own goals?
We study how design and data practices shape attention and autonomy, and develop privacy-first interventions that let people adapt technology around their own goals.
Projects
RegTech4AI
Bringing AI Law into Practice
RegTech4AI uses technical methods to test how the GDPR and EU AI Act operate in real settings. We develop regulatory tools that make compliance easier to assess and enforcement more practical.
NGF / AiNed Fellowship
REGULAIRE
Regulatory Learning for the Governance of Transformative Technologies
REGULAIRE trains fifteen doctoral fellows across ten European universities to help public authorities keep pace with technological change. Comp4Good contributes expertise in regulatory technologies, legal AI audits, and partnerships with regulators and international organisations.
EU Horizon MSCA Doctoral Network, €4.7M
CoCoDa
Studying Systemic Risks on Online Platforms
CoCoDa develops technical and legal methods for accessing platform data and measuring systemic risks under the Digital Services Act. Its tools are designed for researchers, regulators, and civil-society organisations.
SNSF, €1.2M
Centre for Digital Habits
Based on 10+ years of Oxford research
The Centre develops privacy-first tools and evidence-based interventions that help young people manage their digital habits. It builds on more than a decade of Oxford research through the Reduce Digital Distraction programme.
ImpactU (UK)
Team
Based at Maastricht University's Law & Tech Lab, Comp4Good brings together computer scientists and legal scholars working across our projects.
Defne Halil
External PhD Student
REGULAIRE
Dick Blankvoort
PhD Student · St. Gallen
Collaborators
Ulrik Lyngs (Centre for Digital Habits) · Gijs van Dijck (Maastricht University) · Johanna T. Gunawan (Maastricht University) · Marta Kołacz (Maastricht University) · Jerry Spanakis (Maastricht University) · Simon Mayer (University of St. Gallen) · Aurelia Tamò-Larrieux (University of St. Gallen) · Elena Simperl (Open Data Institute)
Publications
Selected work from across the team. Browse the highlights below or expand the archive by year.
Towards High-Fidelity Synthetic Multi-Platform Social Media Datasets via Large Language Models
ACM Transactions on the Web2026JournalCoCoDa
Are Companies Taking AI Risks Seriously? A Systematic Analysis of Companies' AI Risk Disclosures in SEC 10-K forms
PKDD/ECML Workshops2025ConferenceRegTech4AI
Missing the Mark: Adoption of Watermarking for Generative AI Systems in Practice and Implications Under the New EU AI Act
Policy & Internet2026JournalRegTech4AI
Mind the Competitiveness Gap: Measuring the AI Act's Extraterritorial Reach
Computer Law & Security Review2025JournalRegTech4AI
Abuse of Relative Dominance by Digital Platforms: A Law and Economics Perspective
GRUR International2025JournalRegTech4AI
202611 papers
Building AI (In)dependence through EU's AI Factories
SSRNPreprint
Can the GPC standard eliminate consent banners in the EU?
arXivPreprintRegTech4AI
EU data access and portability in practice: nothing but resignation and frustration?
Advancing the Study of Privacy Cynicism, Apathy and Resignation in the Digital Age (Edward Elgar)JournalCoCoDa
Exploring the "Banality" of Deception in Generative AI
arXivPreprintRegTech4AI
From procedures to peril: Towards risk transparency in information privacy for users
Telecommunications PolicyJournal
From your Smart Watch to the Metaverse: Understanding the Scope of EU IoT Regulation in the Data Act
Technology and RegulationJournal
Is your AI Model Accurate Enough? The Difficult Choices Behind Rigorous AI Development and the EU AI Act
ACM FAccTConferenceRegTech4AI
Measuring Privacy vs. Fidelity in Synthetic Social Media Datasets
arXivPreprintCoCoDa
Systemic risks of dominant online platforms: A scoping review
Computer Law & Security ReviewJournalCoCoDa
The App Economy: Making Sense of Platform Power in the Age of AI
Bristol University PressBook
Understanding Data Collection, Brokerage, and Spam in the Lead Marketing Ecosystem
arXivPreprint
20258 papers
Big is Not Bad, but Big AI Might Be: EU Merger Law and the Future of AI Competition
SSRNPreprintREGULAIRE
Can LLMs Create Legally Relevant Summaries and Analyses of Videos?
JURIXConference
Data portability strategies in the EU: Moving beyond individual rights
Computer Law & Security ReviewJournalRegTech4AI
Every Keystroke You Make: A Tech-Law Measurement and Analysis of Event Listeners for Wiretapping
arXivPreprint
Excessive Data Collection and (Mis)use of Data: A Comparative Law and Economics Study on the Chinese Didi Case and the German Facebook Case
The Chinese Journal of Comparative LawJournalRegTech4AI
Regulating pressing systemic risks: But not too soon?
The Economics of AI-enabled Price Discrimination
Economic analysis of law in European legal scholarshipJournalRegTech4AI
The enshittification of online search? Privacy and quality of Google, Bing and Apple in coding advice
arXivPreprint
202410 papers
Data Scraping for the Training of Generative AI—Lessons from Chinese Case Law and Regulation.
Computer Law Review InternationalJournal
Exercising the CCPA Opt-out Right on Android: Legally Mandated but Practically Challenging
Proc. Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PoPETs)Journal
From ad identifiers to global privacy control: The status quo and future of opting out of ad tracking on Android
arXivPreprint
Google's Chrome Antitrust Paradox
arXivPreprint
Koala hero toolkit: A new approach to inform families of mobile datafication risks
ACM CHIConference
Legal, Technical, and Social Limitations of Data Portability through Decentralized Applications
Solid Symposium (SoSy)ConferenceRegTech4AI
Leveraging GPT for the Generation of Multi-Platform Social Media Datasets for Research
arXivPreprintCoCoDa
Privacy in Chinese iOS Apps and Impact of the Personal Information Protection Law
Computer Law & Security ReviewJournal
Privacy of Personal Data in the Generative AI Data Lifecycle
NYU Journal of Intellectual Property & Entertainment LawJournal
Theory and practice: the protection of children’s personal information in China
International Data Privacy LawJournal
Join Us
We welcome people who want to investigate and reshape digital systems across disciplinary boundaries.
Work with us
We collaborate with researchers, regulators, and civil-society organisations on shared questions, methods, and tools.
Study with us
We supervise undergraduate and graduate theses at Maastricht University on app privacy, platform regulation, AI governance, and digital wellbeing.
Join the team
We periodically recruit PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers, and research assistants across our projects.