GATHERINGS

At ERIS we got the chance to ask Mattias 2 questions:

What is Gatherings about? 

Can you tell us a bit more on surveillance, and the impact on people? Mattias: “Citizens are generally ill-informed about how surveillance is organised in their local context, and which rights apply with regard to privacy, data protection, and transparency. Despite increased efforts by the EU to regulate data transfer, it is not always clear, particularly to citizens, to what extent personal data are collected, by whom, for what purpose, if/how they are shared, and how internal access, anonymisation and data management are regulated. It can be argued that the surveillance of public gatherings may not necessarily represent the main worries of citizens and local communities however, vulnerable and othered populations are increasingly subjected to the gendered and cultured effects of surveillance practices. In this respect, we understand “vulnerable social groups” as those whose interactions with social institutions such as schools, the police, the labour market, the housing market, experience inequitable treatment; groups which -as a result of this cumulative process- are increasingly object of control and surveillance. “

Why is Gatherings important to VUB ?

Mattias: “Besides taking up the management part of the EU proposal the VUB will be involved in the mapping and the evaluation of surveillance practices of public gatherings EU-wide. Based on interviews key components of security, privacy and socio-economic cost of surveillance assemblages will be identified which will measure the extent to which security is achieved, privacy is guaranteed, and socio-economic cost is limited in surveillance assemblages. The results will be summarised in a surveillance impact report highlighting how surveillance assemblages work “on the ground”, the effects surveillance has on the privacy of citizens and which socio-economic costs these assemblages engender.  The identified key-components will be instrumental for the development of a security-privacy-cost matrix which will allow policy-makers, security professionals and event organisers to weigh these various aspects of surveillance against each other. “

ABSTRACT

Local surveillance assemblages can be broken down into three constitutive and interrelated parts: technologies used, stakeholders  involved and the data transfer between them. This project uses the notion of the 'surveillant assemblage' proposed by Haggerty & Ericson (2000) and inspired by Deleuze & Guattari (1988) as the starting point to provide a better understanding of how surveillance  technologies are governed.

AIM

Surveillance practices threaten the privacy of citizens and visitors of public gatherings, but they also have  a social impact and economic cost. The first overarching purpose of the GATHERINGS project consists of three ambitions:

- to improve the efficacy of surveillance in order to render public gatherings safer

- to increase the fairness and transparency of surveillance by making it more privacy-friendly,

- to boost feasibility of surveillance for involved stakeholder by making it more cost-effective, both economically and socially.

The second overarching purpose is to identify gaps in terms of awareness among professionals and citizens, and bringing about international harmonisation of good practices and common standards with regard to the privacy-friendly, socially sensitive, cost effective surveillance of safer public gatherings.

METHODOLOGY

In order to respond to the call priorities, the GATHERINGS project will:

- develop common standards, to maximise privacy and data protection in surveillance practices

- develop an accessible matrix, to be used by surveillance professionals, local administrations and event organisers, to weigh securityagainst privacy, economic cost and social impact

- set up an international network of surveillance professionals, administrations, experts, policy makers and citizens

- develop an awareness-raising programme for citizens and civil society

- develop an awareness-raising programme for surveillance professionals

- formulate policy recommendations

- search for synergies with other ongoing security research projects

IMPACT

GATHERINGS will reach out to a wide variety of stakeholders: Law Enforcement Agencies, Surveillance Professionals, Local Authorities, Civil Society, Local communities, citizens, Training Providers, Academics and other researchers, Local and national governments, Political representatives, Policy makers and regulators. Different strategies are used: a stakeholder advisory board, academics dissemination, institutional networks, community engagement, institutional press offices for research communication, an international community of practice network, online learning platforms, co-learning panels, awareness-raising workshops, deposition of data and regular communication via a project website.