There is no doubt that EU measures on the automated processing of data on individuals have an impact on fundamental rights. But which fundamental rights are more deeply affected by them? And how should these rights be safeguarded to ensure the effective protection of individuals and democratic societies? This Policy Brief highlights a series of elements that are critical to addressing the legal dilemmas arising in this area and puts forward recommendations based on research undertaken for the INEX project (Work Package 2).

Profiling through predictive data mining is already a reality worldwide, including in the European Union. This modern technique relies on the massive processing of personal data in order to identify patterns that allow for the automatic categorisation of individuals. Yet no satisfactory debate is taking place on how the use of profiling in this particular area can encroach upon the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals, argue the authors of this INEX Policy Brief.

We live in a world where global data transfers are presented as a norm; just part of life. It is when the individual’s right to privacy is overridden by the state’s appreciation of a need to know about that individual that problems arise. In this Policy Brief of the Justice & Home Affairs INEX series, CEPS Senior Research Fellow Elspeth Guild considers such questions as: what are the principles of privacy? What is necessary in a democratic society and what is the role of supranational and national courts in determining the meaning of privacy, and for whom?

Private security services are gaining importance in the general provision of security. This Policy Brief argues that what we are seeing is not simply the transfer of security functions or responsibilities from the public sector to the private sector, but an overall expansion in both private and public security. Against this background, the paper examines the provision of security as a commodity, which can give rise to different ethical dilemmas related to accountability, transparency and other issues of ‘good governance’.

IN:EX Policy Brief is the fourth in the series so far and focuses on Euro-Mediterranean relations in the field of security. It analyses the treatment given to the security agenda in the Barcelona Process, noting that regional conflicts have undermined the development of cooperation in this field and that the partners have opted for the more pragmatic approach of bilateral or sub-regional frameworks.

This literature review, by Jelle van Buuren of the Free University of Amsterdam, reveals that there is an academic void as far as ethics research into emergent hybrid and transnational security practices is concerned. Many factors and variables are at stake, and they mutually influence one another: security culture(s), leadership, training and education, social context, technological influences, security styles and ethical codes. The complexity of this hybrid and ethically blurred field has several implications for empirical research into the ethical values of security.