Using technology to draw borders: fundamental rights for the Smart Borders initiative
Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society
ISSN: 1477-996X
Article publication date: 9 March 2015
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the primary fundamental rights concerns related to biometrics and their use in automated border controls (ABCs), as well as how these issues converge in the European Commission’s Smart Borders proposal.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on extensive background research and qualitative in-depth interviews conducted in 2013 for the European Union (EU) FP-7 project “FastPass – A harmonized, modular reference system for all European automatic border crossing points”.
Findings
The Smart Borders proposal not only compounds the individual concerns related to the use of biometrics in border controls and automatisation thereof, but also has serious issues of its own, premier among which is the imposition of a two-tier border control system.
Social implications
The paper is a catalyst for open debate on the fundamental questions of how we got to this point and where do we want to go. It questions the process by which the increased use of IT in border controls has become the norm and policy trend in Europe, and discusses where the limits could be drawn from a fundamental rights perspective. In particular, it warns against the institutionalisation of a two-tier border control system among third-country nationals.
Originality/value
Little attention is given to the fundamental rights concerns raised for EU and non-EU citizens as related to biometrics and their use in ABCs, and how these issues are reproduced in the Smart Borders proposal. The paper fills this gap by taking a bottom-up approach: examining the implications of individual elements of the proposal to see their impact on the broader policy.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge and thank the interview partners who took the time to speak with us, their input was invaluable. The research was conducted within the framework of a larger EU-funded project, “FastPass – A harmonized, modular reference system for all European automatic border crossing points”, and the authors would like to thank the other partners of the project for their support.
Citation
Hendow, M., Cibea, A. and Kraler, A. (2015), "Using technology to draw borders: fundamental rights for the Smart Borders initiative", Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 39-57. https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-02-2014-0008
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited