Euro project to arrest us for what they think we will do

[Eugen Leitl]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/23/eu_crime_prediction_project/

Euro project to arrest us for what they think we will do

'Positively chilling' says Liberty

By John Ozimek b" Get more from this author

Posted in Government, 23rd September 2009 14:10 GMT

Radical Think Tank Open Europe has this week exposed a study by the EU that
could lead to the creation of a massive cross-Europe database, amassing vast
amounts of personal data on every single citizen in the EU.

The scope of this project also reveals a growing governmental preference for
systems capable of locking people up not for what they have done, but for
what they might do.

Open Europe (OE) researcher, Stephen Booth, has been reviewing projects
currently in receipt of EU funding. Last week he identified one of these -
Project INDECT - as having potentially far-reaching effects for anyone living
or working in Europe. The main objectives of this project, according to its
own website, are:

    To develop a platform for: the registration and exchange of operational
data, acquisition of multimedia content, intelligent processing of all
information and automatic detection of threats and recognition of abnormal
behaviour or violence, to develop the prototype of an integrated,
network-centric system supporting the operational activities of police
officers.

In addition, it aims "to develop a set of techniques supporting surveillance
of internet resources, analysis of the acquired information, and detection of
criminal activities and threats."

There are two controversial aspects to this research. First is the extent of
data collection implied by the project scope. Second, and perhaps far more
worrying, is the proposition that law enforcement agencies, in possession of
sufficient data, will in future be able to model potentially criminal and
anti-social behaviour and therefore focus on individuals before crimes are
committed.

In this, it echoes another EU-sponsored piece of research b ADABTS b which is
all about Automatic Detection of Abnormal Behaviour and Threats in crowded
Spaces. According to the ADABTS prospectus, it "aims to develop models for
abnormal and threat behaviours and algorithms for automatic detection of such
behaviours as well as deviations from normal behaviour in surveillance data."

The INDECT project is co-ordinated by Polish academic Professor Andrzej
Dziech. Participants include several institutions from Poland - which until
recently had its own issues with over-arching state surveillance - as well as
the Northern Ireland Police Service.

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of human rights group Liberty, described this
approach as a "sinister step" for any country, but "positively chilling" on a
European scale.

Stephen Booth added: "The problem with the EU funding these types of projects
is the lack of accountability. Citizens are left completely in the dark as to
who has approved them and there is no way to ensure that civil liberties are
being duly respected.

"The absence of any political debate about the use of these new surveillance
technologies in our society is a very dangerous trend, which is especially
acute at the EU level."

However, the idea of punishing potential criminals is not just an EU notion.
As El Reg reported last year, the Home Office has certainly considered the
use of automated profiling to check travellers at points of entry to the UK.
This has been controversial, both because of the veiled racism implied by
such a policy, as well as evidence provided to the Home Office that it might
not actually work.

However, the Vetting Database - which is due to go live later this year -
will take decisions on whether people are fit to work in millions of
"regulated" positions on the basis of a scoring system, designed to "predict"
likelihood to offend.

The introduction of predictive models into society appears to be carrying on
apace, with very little public debate as to how desirable they are, or how
the state should compensate citizens where mistakes occur. There is also a
blurring of the lines between predicting a threat b in which case law
enforcement officers can be asked to investigate b and simply predicting
criminality and penalising an individual on the basis of something they have
not yet done.

OE is interested in seeing less formal integration across Europe, and a
return to more issues being resolved at the national level. Their
investigation looked at funding provided under the Seventh Framework
Programme (FP7). This can be accessed via the Cordis portal, and is a
mechanism whereby funds controlled by the EU Commission are made available
for research projects.

The existence of an FP7 project is not necessarily an indicator of EU policy
in an area, but it is clear evidence of some interest in the approach being
investigated.

Project INDECT launched on 1 January this year with a project budget of 14.86
million Euros. It is due to deliver the goods, including a 15-node pilot
project, by the end of 2013.