Thomas Allmer has studied media and communication at the University of Salzburg and the Victoria University of Melbourne. He currently is PhD student at the University of Salzburg and research associate in the project ”Social Networking Sites in the Surveillance Society“, funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). His research interests are critical theory, critical media and communication studies, information society research, and surveillance and privacy studies. Thomas is member of the Unified Theory of Information Research Group and participates in the working group “Living in the Surveillance Age” of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology Action “Living in Surveillance Societies”.