News: Florence DETECTER Programme Announced

The second DETECTER Project Meeting will take place in Florence on Thursday the 18th of February 2010. The Programme will run as follows:

9.00 – 9.15 Introduction by Prof. Martin Scheinin, Professor of International Law at the European University Institute and United Nations Special Rapporteur on the protection of human rights while countering terrorism

9.15 – 11.00 Identification of terrorist suspects through detection technologies: risks and opportunities
Chair: Martin Scheinin (European University Institute, Italy)

• Ehud Givon (WECU-technologies, Israel) – Security through intent detection
• Jacques Verraes (Europan Commission, Belgium) – Data protection issues related to identification of terrorist suspects
• Ben Hayes (Statewatch, United Kingdom) – Respondent to presentations of Commission and WeCU technologies

11.00 – 11.30 Coffee break

11.30 – 13.30 Human rights aspects of the use of detection technologies

Chair: Daniel Moeckli (University of Zurich, Switzerland)

• Roos van der hilst (University of Oslo, Norway) – Human rights risks of selected detection technologies - sample uses by governments
• Emilio Mordini (HIDE, Italy) - Biometrics, Body, Identity
• R. Leenes (University of Tilburg, the Netherlands) – Location based surveillance – why planes, trains and automobiles are the new castles

13.30 – 15.00 Lunch

15.00-17.00 Martin Scheinin presenting WP4 Deliverable on "Developments in the Declarations of Exceptions, Claims of Inapplicability, or Unilateral Modifications in Respect of Internation Law for the Sake of Counter-Terrorism"

Limited Places - To register, please e-mail mathias.vermeulen@eui.eu

EU Funding New Database to be used to Identify 'Abnormal Behaviour'

From the Daily Telegraph: the EU is funding a 5 year project entitled INDECT (Intelligent information system supporting observation, searching and detection for security of citizens in urban environment) which aims 'to develop computer programmes which act as "agents" to monitor and process information from web sites, discussion forums, file servers, peer-to-peer networks and even individual computers' in order to identify so called 'abnormal' behaviour.

A number of interest groups have criticised the program:

Stephen Booth, an Open Europe analyst who has helped compile a dossier on the
European justice agenda, said these developments and projects such as Indect
sounded "Orwellian" and raised serious questions about individual liberty.
"This is all pretty scary stuff in my book. These projects would involve a huge invasion of privacy and citizens need to ask themselves whether the EU should be spending their taxes on them," he said. "The EU lacks sufficient checks and balances and there is no evidence that anyone has ever asked 'is this actually in the best interests of our citizens?'"

[Liberty's Shami Chakrabarti commented] "Profiling whole populations instead of monitoring individual suspects is a sinister step in any society. "It's dangerous enough at national level, but on a Europe-wide scale the idea becomes positively
chilling."

Zurich DETECTER Site Launched

We've set up a few webpages related to the DETECTER project on the University of Zurich's website. The pages provide some information about Work Package 6, contact information for the researchers involved, and will provide a platform for any future publications that may come out in connection with the project. The "homepage" for the site is accessible here.

DETECTER Blog Goes Online

The DETECTER Blog has been officially launched. The blog will provide news, events and comments from or relating to the EU FP7 DETECTER project, which is co-ordinated by the Centre for the Study of Global Ethics at the University of Birmingham.