Fabio Chiusi (he/him)

The Seamless Surveillance Machine: Europe’s Biometric Border Vision

The EU aims to develop and deploy so-called “biometrics on the move” technologies in order to turn its borders into engines of seamless mass discrimination. Behind the promise of rendering border crossings instantaneous and border checks invisible, lies a vision rooted in opacity and unproven technological solutions. This could, in practice, usher in a regime of invisible but pervasive mass surveillance of people on the move and travelers alike.

The EU’s empty promises on sustainable border AI

EU-funded projects claim to make automated border surveillance environmentally sustainable, but the Commission admitted to AlgorithmWatch that it lacks rigorous definitions, standards and methods to translate these claims into measurable outcomes. As a result, a more ubiquitous “Green” border AI will most likely harm — rather than help — the planet.

Automation on the Move

Border Surveillance on the Move to Enforce Restrictive Measures

In two recent Horizon Europe research projects, adaptable and mobile AI-based surveillance assemblages are developed to secure both the external and internal borders of the European Union. AlgorithmWatch looked into project material that revealed a lopsided fixation on defense.

Automation on the Move

The EU Spends Big on Border Tech — But Has No Idea What It Gets

The European Commission claims not to monitor if research findings of EU-funded projects are applied to the market after they have ended, AlgorithmWatch found. As no EU institution seems to be responsible for checking on border security investments, it is hard to tell if the millions spent actually lead to technological innovation.

Automation on the Move

The Automation of Fortress Europe: Behind the Black Curtain

The European Union poured 5 million euros into the development of a border surveillance system called NESTOR. When we tried to look into it, we were presented hundreds of redacted, blacked out pages.

Automation on the Move

Blurred Lines: When Civilian Research Projects Become of Military Interest

The EU does not fund border security research projects that mainly target military applications. Or do they? AlgorithmWatch found that in the realm of border security, civilian applications appeal enormously to the military.

Automation on the Move

Automating EU Borders, Broken Checks and Balances

For over a year, we have been looking into EU-funded border security research projects to assess their methodological approaches and ethical implications. We failed.

Automation on the Move

EMERALD – The One That Fell from Grace

Only one proposed border security research project did not meet the EU’s ethical requirements and was rejected, AlgorithmWatch found. What was so unique about this surveillance system?

Country Analyses

New Study: Data Practices and Surveillance in the World of Work

Workers are increasingly being digitally surveilled, datafied and algorithmically managed in Italy, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom, a qualitative analysis by AlgorithmWatch shows.

Domestic COVID certificates: what does the evidence say?

Born to help reopen international travel routes, digital COVID certificates are now required in several countries to enter premises such as bars, restaurants, gyms, pools, and museums, and to attend large public events. But do they work — and what for, precisely? More fundamentally, is it even possible to have an evidence-based debate about them at all? Tracing The Tracers looked at the lessons we should learn from the available literature, with the help of a stellar group of researchers.

Making sense of digital contact tracing apps for the next pandemics

In an interview with AlgorithmWatch, Prof. Susan Landau discusses why we need to resist fear in the face of pandemic uncertainty and the normalization of health surveillance technologies — and why the time to have a broad democratic discussion about their future uses is now.

Digital contact tracing apps: do they actually work? A review of early evidence

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many smartphone apps were launched to complement and augment manual contact tracing efforts without a priori knowledge of their actual effectiveness. A year later, do we know if they worked as intended? An analysis of early evidence—from both the literature and actual usage—by AlgorithmWatch finds that results, so far, are contradictory and that comparability issues might prevent an informed, overall judgment on the role of digital contact tracing apps in response to the COVID-19 pandemic altogether.

In Italy, general practitioners and some regions adopt COVID-19 vaccine prioritization algorithms

Amid a chaotic rollout of the national vaccination plan, the Italian Federation of General Practitioners (FIMMG) and some regions in Italy are resorting to algorithms to more efficiently priorities who gets vaccinated against COVID-19.

Analysis: Digital vaccine certificates – global patchwork, little transparency

A global debate has sparked around the idea of implementing a digital infrastructure to prove a person’s COVID-19 vaccination status across borders. But as the initiatives multiply across Europe and all over the globe, an international consensus is hard to reach — and issues still abound.

In Italy, an appetite for face recognition in football stadiums

Right before the pandemic, the government and top sports authorities were planning a massive deployment of face recognition and sound surveillance technologies in all Italian football stadiums. The reason? To help fight racism

Italy

Country analysis by Fabio Chiusi