New group calls for European Privacy Institute
An initiative has been launched to lobby for a permanent European institute to foster a synthesis between technology and privacy. The European Privacy Institute Initiative already involves nearly 40 experts - mainly academics but also business associates and an official from the European Commission. Driving the initiative is a desire to examine how values like privacy and ethics can be integrated into future product designs and technologies. The group points out that a number of global companies, such as IBM, Microsoft and KPMG are conducting research into privacy issues. In Europe, a number of EU-funded projects are doing the same. These include PRIME (Privacy and Identity Management for Europe), FIDIS (Future of Identity in the Information Society), and BITE (Biometric Identification Technology Ethics). Universities around Europe are also carrying out their own research projects. 'Both political as well as social-ethical reasons call for a joint and coordinated initiative with an independent, coherent and holistic scientific and academic approach on an active, diligent and systematic process of inquiry aimed at discovering, interpreting and revising facts about privacy put into a European context,' the European Privacy Institute Initiative claims. A permanent institute would be in a position to raise awareness of the issues involved, and could be the motor behind the establishment of centres of excellence to support both EU Member States and industry, the initiative maintains. The institute should be organised around a set of research themes addressing major challenges that are too complex for individuals or small groups of researchers to tackle on their own. An Executive Committee has been created to present the idea to the EU institutions. The three Committee members represent a university, the director of a research consortium and the CEO of the European Biometric Forum. A Scientific Advisory Committee has been established to assist the Executive Committee. The initiative quotes various officials from the European Commission as being in favour of an institute. 'There is great need to increase the level of awareness on privacy issues, both in the general public and in the companies and institutions, and the Institute you envisage will certainly play a useful role in that context,' says Philippe Renaudière, Head of the Data Protection Unit in DG Justice, Freedom and Security. Jacques Bus, Head of Unit for trust and security in DG Information Society describes the proposal as an 'Interesting initiative in an area that is indeed of crucial importance to the future development of the European information society.' 'I am pleased to tell you that we welcome this initiative,' adds Jean-Claude Burgelman of the Joint Research Centre (JRC). 'The future of privacy and identity is a research topic (and policy issue) at the heart of our interest and work here as it is a necessary step towards facilitating widespread user adoption of the information society.'