Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how social values and guarantees for fundamental rights can be designed into technological solutions, while at the same time identifying what will be the crucial choices that will shape not only the future of our borders, but also the permeability of our societies.

Paper long abstract:

Since 9/11, airports and border crossing areas have become critical infrastructures and, some may say, states of exception. Enhanced security measures have turned airports into dense data ecosystems. Passenger purchase and travel details are shared, often across borders, among authorities and operators (e.g. PNR), automated border gates (e-Gates) respond to biometrics-enabled identity documents (2nd generation e-Passports), and "no fly lists" and other watch lists rely on the interoperability of these and other databases. At the same time, new forms of mechanical sorting arise, which reinforce social divisions.

In the European Union, a "Smart Borders Initiative" is currently being discussed. The project intends to expand and harmonize automated border crossings (ABC) at the EU level, develop plans for a Registered Traveller Programme (RTP) to facilitate border crossing for pre-approved third-country nationals, create an Entry-Exit System (EES) to identify over-stayers, and propose an amendment to the Schengen Borders Code. In parallel, biometrics are being deployed to register and track refugees as they enter and settle I the EU.

This paper uses the experience of working with the industry-led, EC-funded ABC4EU project to explore how social values and guarantees for fundamental rights can be designed into technological solutions, while at the same time identifying what will be the crucial choices that will shape not only the future of our borders, but also the permeability of our societies. Drawing on focus groups, technological auditing and societal impact assessment methods, the interaction between the legal, the ethical and the technological at the border is explored.