Dr. Julia Powles is a legal researcher at the University of Cambridge, where she holds appointments in the Faculty of Law and the Computer Laboratory. Her research focuses on the interface of law and technology, with expertise in data protection, privacy, intellectual property, internet governance, regulation and business law. Currently, she is working on projects on cybercrime data sharing, European implementation of the right to be forgotten, encryption and public policy, artificial intelligence and healthcare, and technology and power. Prior to her current position at Cambridge, Powles worked as a contributing editor and policy fellow at the Guardian and as speechwriter for the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization. She was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to the University of Oxford and worked in Sydney for MinterEllison, the Federal Court of Australia, and the Commonwealth Administrative Appeals Tribunal. She holds honours degrees in science and law from the Australian National University and University of Western Australia, a master’s in law from Oxford, and a PhD in law from Cambridge.

Powles is an associate research fellow of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London and a visiting researcher at the Centre for Internet and Human Rights in Berlin. She is on the Ethics Advisory Board of the BBC-Deutsche Wella SUMMA Big Data Consortium and is an active member of the Ethics of Big Data Research Group at the University of Cambridge.