The EU is using new technologies to screen, profile and risk-assess travellers to the Schengen area, posing risks to civil liberties and fundamental rights. It is something that has to be followed carefully because the next step may be that EU-citizens are treated the same way.

Statewatch on 13 July from 15 – 16 BST organises an online event on launch of a report on the EU’s new travel surveillance initiatives, the announcement follows:

Automated suspicion: The EU’s new travel surveillance initiatives
by Statewatch

Normal people are increasingly being treated as suspects when they travel to the EU. What are the risks for civil liberties?

About this Event
Join us for the launch of a report looking at how the EU is using new technologies to screen, profile and risk-assess travellers to the Schengen area, and the risks this poses to civil liberties and fundamental rights.

By developing ‘interoperable’ biometric databases, introducing untested profiling tools, and using new ‘pre-crime’ watchlists, people visiting the EU from all over the world are being placed under a veil of suspicion in the name of enhancing security.

We will be joined by speakers from Foxglove, a UK digital rights organisation, and Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (Civil Rights Association) from Germany, both of whom are involved in legal challenges against automated profiling tools already being used on visa applicants and travellers.

To find out more about these new data-gathering schemes and their implications for ordinary travellers, join us at 15:00 (BST) on 13 July.

Statewatch is a “non-profit-making voluntary group founded in 1991 comprised of lawyers, academics, journalists, researchers and community activists. Our European network of contributors is drawn from 18 countries. We encourage the publication of investigative journalism and critical research in Europe in the fields of the state, justice and home affairs, civil liberties, accountability and openness“; more on this page.