Affordances of Freedom: Theorizing the Rights of Users in the Digital Era

What does it take to be a free person in the information age? Securing freedom is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges we are facing nowadays as we delve into the second decade of the 21 century. Enhanced surveillance capabilities, big data analytics, increasing collaboration between government and online intermediaries in law enforcement efforts, and the prevalence of technological protection measures, create new types of threats to individual freedom.1 A first step in addressing this challenge is to better understand what it means to be a free person in the information era. In Configuring the Networked Self: Law, Code, and the Play of Everyday Practice,2 Julie Cohen offers a profound exploration of the human condition in the information age and skillfully articulates the complex dialectic between access and control of information. Her analysis lays the ground for understanding freedom in our times. There is a forceful interplay...