Public spaces are protected while respecting privacy and avoiding mass surveillance

Topic description

ExpectedOutcome:

Projects’ results are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• Improved understanding by local authorities, operators and policy makers of the effect of large-scale surveillance of public spaces on the behaviour of citizens and possible negative effects on local communities;
• Enhanced transparency for citizens on different forms of surveillance by Police Authorities^[1], local authorities and private actors in public spaces, and increased awareness of applicable rights towards operators of such systems;
• Improved protection of public spaces without the need for 24/7 data collection and storage;
• Set of common standards and good practices by local authorities, operators and policy makers for internal access restriction, anonymization and data minimization allowing a proportionate use of already installed surveillance-systems (such as CCTV) in public spaces, reducing the risk of misuse of collected data and respecting fundamental rights, especially the protection of personal data.

In recent years, the number of different tools for the surveillance of public spaces has been growing at massive pace in most European cities. CCTV-systems in public spaces are the most evident examples. They have been expanded in terms of quantity (number of CCTV in public spaces, such as squares, streets or touristic sites), quality (improved solution of images, possibility of tracking and automatic pattern-recognition) and also scope (CCTV present in areas like parks, 24/7 recording as standard due to higher data storage capacities).

CCTV-systems are the most evident and visible, although by far not the only ones. Acoustic sensors, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and in the future possibly widespread facial recognition add to a system of sensors that cover large parts of public spaces in many European cities.

While evidence suggests that such tools can help to combat certain forms of crime an increase the perceived security of citizens, the significant expansion of areas that are monitored risks to create negative effects for the right for privacy. Scientific studies indicate that also legal forms of behaviour are adapted by persons, which are aware that they are monitored by surveillance systems. Furthermore, there is evidence that such systems are often concentrated in socially deprived districts, creating the risks of stigmatisation of its residents.

In terms of crime prevention there are indications that for many settings, sensors like CCTV are in the best case only part of a solution and they can create a tendency of reducing personnel on the ground, thus limiting the possibilities for classical policing and reducing the direct interaction between local police and public order services and the citizens. Such interaction is however key to address crime prevention and response to criminal threats in a holistic manner.

The quantitative growth of both public and private surveillance has led to the fact that nowadays, citizens are hardly able to keep track of where their data has been captured and thus not able to make us of their rights as guaranteed by applicable legislation, such as the GDPR. While citizens as subjects of the surveillance are becoming transparent towards public and private operators of surveillance, the operators themselves remain in many cases inaccessible and few technological innovations are used to make sure only relevant data is stored and processed.

While significant industry and research resources are invested in the design of new and the upgrading of existing surveillance systems for public spaces, innovation could be stimulated to look for alternatives. Such alternative could identify means to protect public spaces though enhanced interaction with local communities, re-design sensors as to ensure they capture data in the most proportionate way, increase transparency for citizens towards public and private operators of surveillance systems and finally explore privacy-friendly technological features to ensure that only relevant data is kept, processed and accessible by authorised actors. This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.

Responsible Research and Innovation^[2] could be a relevant approach for the involvement of diverse stakeholders, launching debates, and co-developing or even implementing solutions.

In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content should be addressed only if the consortium deems it relevant in relation to the objectives of the research effort.

Digital Agenda
Social sciences and humanities
Societal Engagement
Artificial Intelligence

[1]In the context of this Destination, ‘Police Authorities’ means public authorities explicitly designated by national law, or other entities legally mandated by the competent national authority, for the prevention, detection and/or investigation of terrorist offences or other criminal offences, specifically excluding police academies, forensic institutes, training facilities as well as border and customs authorities.

[2]Responsible research and innovation involves multi-actor and public engagement in research and innovation, easier access to scientific results, the take up of gender and ethics in the research and innovation content and process, and formal and informal science education.