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The digital age is characterized by hyperconnected services. Whenever we engage with an app we likely engage with a broader set of actors, often facilitated by a platform. Essentially, we engage with a service ecosystem posing particular challenges for privacy regulation. With GDPR taking effect we seek to understand the implications of it for privacy in such ecosystems. Interconnected services can facilitate the diffusion of personal data and thus impede with individual privacy rights. We apply a novel techno-legal analysis to the flow of personal information in service ecosystems. Based on two cases, we show that novel requirements arise for platforms as key actors in service ecosystems. Using our techno-legal analysis we conclude that two major platform providers, Apple and Facebook, have more in common from a legal perspective than the current rhetoric suggests. Based on the analysis, we discuss where privacy-preserving solutions in service ecosystems need to be positioned.

Smart cities and communities aim for social wellbeing. Mobilizing and integrating various institutions, actors, and resources are crucial when building and instantiating smart community initiatives. The design of such an arrangement is a complex phenomenon, difficult to conduct systematically and to observe empirically. We address this challenge by applying a multilevel design framework for service systems to an ongoing design science research project. The research project pursues the goal of building a neighborhood community as an instantiation of smart communities by activating and leveraging local institutions, actors, and resources on an IT-enabled engagement platform. We demonstrate how this multilevel perspective informs the design process for building smart communities. Based on micro-level observations, the interdependence of engagement-stimulating mechanisms related to the platform's design at the meso-level, and design implications for the institutional arrangement at the macro-level are emphasized as inseparable design activities for mobilizing and integrating actors and resources.

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