"Azadeh Akbari is Assistant Professor in Digital Transformation at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. She is an EU-funded Marie Sk_odowska-Curie Global Fellow (2024-7) for her project Authoritarian Smart Cities. Azadeh is the co-director of the Surveillance Studies Network and the founder and director of the Surveillance in the Majority World Network. She has been a journalist for many years and has worked as a communication manager and community outreach specialist at the UNHCR, UNICEF, and the British Council. Azadeh is the co-editor of the upcoming open-access book on Critical ICT4D (Information & Communication Technology for Development) and is also an associate editor for the journals Surveillance & Society and Information Technology for Development. "