Nato a Negrar in provincia di Verona, si laurea in Scienze dell'Informazione all'Università degli Studi di Milano. È uno dei pionieri nella introduzione di Internet in Italia. Nel 1989, ancora studente, ha fondato MI.NE.R.S. (Milano Network Researchers and Students), la prima associazione telematica studentesca italiana che ha realizzato la prima rete indipendente di posta elettronica in Italia ed il primo sistema telematico per l'iscrizione ad esami universitari. Collaborando con Daniele Bovio, ricercatore presso l'istituto di fisica cosmica del CNR di Milano ed uno dei coordinatori del SIAM (Servizio Informatico Area Milanese), ha introdotto la posta elettronica al Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Informazione dell'Università degli Studi di Milano, curando l'aggiornamento professionale del personale docente. È stato uno dei fondatori di I.Net nel 1994, il primo Internet Service Provider commerciale in Italia orientato al mercato professionale, che ha ospitato la prima sede del Milan Internet Exchange (MIX), il primo e principale punto di interscambio di traffico neutrale in Italia ed ha contribuito alla nascita di AIIP, l'Associazione Italiana degli Internet Provider. Ha teorizzato Internet come una dimensione dell'esistenza, in cui si creano e sviluppano relazioni sociali ed economiche e la nascita di un nuovo conflitto di classe tra intermediari ed intermediati che avvolge e sovrasta il tradizionale conflitto tra capitalisti e proletari, introducendo quindi oltre alle tradizionali categorie di capitale e lavoro anche la categoria informazione, controllata da un ristretto numero di info-plutocrati.

Stefano Quintarelli (born 14 June 1965) is a leading IT expert in Italy. He was a member of the Italian Parliament in the XVII legislature, as part of the Civics and Innovators group. He was a member of telecommunications and transport commission in Italian Parliament during the XVII Legislature and is President of AGID (Government agency for digital Italy) An Italian Internet pioneer and serial entrepreneur, he is a founder of I.Net, the first Italian business ISP that was listed on the Italian Stock Exchange and sold to British Telecom in 2000. Quintarelli was recognized by Corriere della Sera as one of the thirty most innovative Italian entrepreneurs. After leaving BT group in 2007, until July 2012 he was a managing director of the digital area of Il Sole 24 Ore group, the leading Italian financial newspaper He is a founder and he was director of CLUSIT (Italian association of internet and IT security) and he was president of AIIP, the Italian internet provider association. A former professor of computer security, author of several articles and books on Internet and its impacts on society and the economy, and curator of scientific seminars on technology for the italian financial community. In 2015 he formally defined the concept of Device Neutrality and proposed a bill to enforce it in Italy. The bill was stopped at the final vote at the Senate in 2017, after many successful votes at the Chamber of Deputies and through all Senate committees, thanks to lobbying efforts by some multinational device manufaturers and telecom operators. The law has since gained formal support at the European Commission by BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Hermes Center for Transparency and digital human rights. A law with identic principles has been passed in South Korea and the French telecoms regulator ARCEP has called for the introduction of Device Neutrality in Europe. He theorized the Internet as a dimension of existence, in which social and economic relations are created and developed and the emergence of a new class conflict between intermediaries and intermediated that surrounds and dominates the traditional conflict between capitalists and proletarians, thus introducing in addition to the traditional categories of capital and labor, the information category which is controlled by a small number of info-plutocrats.