Special Issue on Surveillance

This is a Special issue of the European Journal of Law and Technology collecting a selected number of papers given at the Workshop 'Surveilling Surveillance' held in Florence on 25 and 26 September 2012, hosted by the National Research Council of Italy (CNR). The Workshop was organized within the SMART Project (Scalable Measures for Automated Recognition), co-funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme (http://www.smartsurveillance.eu/). The issue is edited by the Workshop Program Chairs, Joseph A. Cannataci, who is also the SMART Project Coordinator, Sebastiano Faro and Maria Angela Biasiotti. During the Workshop, SMART Project members together with academics and stakeholders met to discuss the present status of smart surveillance systems as well as the risks and opportunities inherent to the use of these technologies from a multidisciplinary approach. Smart surveillance systems use technology to collect raw data via interlinked multisensory receptors to allow automated data processing, assessment and analysis as well as (semi-)automated decision-making with the gathered data. Such systems are increasingly becoming common and more widely used by police and security forces around the world raising concerns of individuals regarding privacy and protection of personal data. Despite the rapid increase in their use, there is a question regarding the adequacy of the legal framework for regulating such technologies. Which laws are applicable in this context? What safeguards are envisioned? Can the laws be technology-neutral but sector specific, thus permitting a measured approach to the appropriateness of smart surveillance technologies in key security applications? Can the laws and policies be extended to all security applications of smart surveillance? The SMART project addresses these and other related questions and issues through a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach well represented here by the variety of the ten selected papers, which deal with the surveillance issue from different perspectives within various contexts. In addition to these papers, a commentary by professor Stefano Rodotà, former president of the Italian Data Protection Authority (1997-2005) and of Article 29 Data Protection Working Party (1998-2002), drafts the legal scenario where surveillance technologies are implemented and utilized, with a view to the current situation and future prospects.