Increasing Resilience in Surveillance Societies (IRISS)

​Rocco Bellanova successfully defended his PhD thesis at the Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles on Tuesday 5 May. His thesis is titled The politics of data protection: what does data protection do? and analyzes the powers and politics of data protection, in particular in relation to the deployment of security technologies based on passenger data. The PhD is awarded jointly by the Centre de Recherche en Science Politique (CReSPo) of the Université Saint-Louis and the Law, Science, Technology and Society (LSTS) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. 

The IRISS project has just published a major 412-page report entitled Surveillance, Fighting Crime and Violence. The report analyses the factors underpinning the development and use of surveillance systems and technologies by both public authorities and private actors, their implications in fighting crime and terrorism, social and economic costs, protection and infringement of civil liberties, fundamental rights and ethical aspects.

PRIO is one of the partners of the consortium undertaking the IRISS project, which stands for 'Increasing Resilience in Surveillance Societies', funded by the EC under the 7th Framework Programme. Anthony Amicelle, main researcher at PRIO for the IRISS project contributed to the report on the matters of exclusion and discrimination, surveillance and freedom of movement and surveillance and discrimination.