Robin Wilton is the Internet Society’s Director for Internet Trust, helping to advocate for an Internet that fulfils people’s expectations of privacy, security and trustworthiness.

Since entering the IT industry in 1984, he has used solid technical foundations in systems engineering, consultancy, and programme management, as the basis for high-level advocacy work on technology-related policy. His industry career has included roles at IBM, Sun Microsystems and Gartner Group, as well as independent consulting. He joined the Internet Society in 2012, focusing on key tech/policy areas including privacy, digital identity, encryption, IoT, and quantum computing.

For 2024-25, in addition to advocacy work, Robin leads an Internet Society team running the Symposium on Network and Distributed Systems Security (NDSS), a top-four global conference on digital security research. He has developed other close ties with academia, mentoring Masters-level students in the Science, Technology and Public Policy (STEaPP) program at University College, London (UCL), and PhD candidates at the Nottingham University Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT).

Robin has been an ethics board member and expert reviewer on EU-funded innovation programs from FP6 (2002-2013) to Horizon Europe (2021 - ). From 2014 to 2021 he was a board member of the Kantara Initiative. In this latter role, he co-founded Kantara Europe. During this period, he also evaluated and mentored incubator projects under Rutgers University’s CCICADA program, and the EU’s “Next Generation Internet - Trust” initiative.

Publications in his role at the Internet Society include:

• Personal Data Protection Guidelines for Africa – joint project with the African Union Commission
• Policy Brief – Ethical Data Handling
• Internet Impact Brief: Encryption and the UK Online Safety Bill

Robin is an effective communicator in speech and writing, with a reputation for translating complex topics between technologists, business-people and policy-makers. His long-term interest is in how social constructs such as identity, privacy and trust are mediated through technology.