A device for generating a virtual network user that can be used, for data protection purposes, as a pseudonym by which a physical person or legal entity can gain access to the Internet and engage services that can be implemented via the network. The network user is defined by a freely specifiable combination of real and/or arbitrarily specifiable attributes. The input of these attributes into the network access device (PC) of the user activates a transformation system which facilitates the generation of the data flows that implement the virtual network user and that can be saved with the temporal sequence of the data flow in a storage device of the transformation system. An access system allocated to an independent authority is provided, which upon activation can initiate the readout of such data from a memory allocated to the storage device of the transformation system.