New digital technologies enable creativity, connect the world, and provide public goods and essential services. They also challenge conventional notions of privacy, facilitate crime, and enable surveillance and oppression. How and to which end these data-driven technologies are used is determined by political, corporate, societal, and individual choices. With two billion new – mostly non-Western – users expected to go online in the coming years, the political and economic stakes are rising. Contests over global rules for technologies and data transfer will only continue to heat up. We aim to contribute toward sound political, corporate, and societal choices through research, policy advice, and the fostering of strategic communities.