Counter-terror technology under scrutiny at EU research conference

Prague: The civil liberties implications of technology used to tackle the threat of terrorism came under scrutiny at an EU research conference in the Czech capital

The Detecter project, financed under the justice and society element of the EU's seventh research framework programme (FP7), will conduct a substantial review of the consequences of using technology to counter terrorism.

Coordinator Tom Sorrell told the joint Czech EU presidency-European commission Research Connection 2009 conference in Prague on Friday that subjects under discussion would include the controversial practice of data mining, CCTV camera surveillance and secret internet monitoring of those considered a security threat.

Although data mining - when a researcher compares large amounts of data to find suspicious patterns - has already been found unconstitutional by a German court, Sorrell said it is still being used in some European countries.

The project will address the difficult ethical and legal issues raised by counter-terrorism activities, he explained, bringing together human rights lawyers, security services, technology developers and users to develop an ethical, moral and legal framework for the products.

Sorrell said the idea of the programme was classify detection technologies "by ethical and human rights risk".

Also under discussion at the conference were more practical security issues, including the Demasst security demonstration programme on the security of mass transportation systems.

More than 2000 scientists, industrialists, researchers and politicians are attending the event to discuss the future of research and science in Europe and ways of improvement through collaboration.

"There is no alternative to better collaboration in European Research”, said EU research commissioner Janez Potocnik at the start of the conference on Thursday.

"We are facing new threats, and new global challenges. It is up to us within the research community – both the "new" and "old", the "big" and "small" Member States - to adapt and build a new sustainable and profitable research ecosystem in the EU. We need to connect”.

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