Alexandra Karaiskou, PhD student at the European University Institute (EUI), is visiting the LSTS during this semester.
On 4 March 2024, 12:30 to 13:30 CET, Alexandra will present her work-in-progress, entitled ‘Scratching beneath the surface: profiling, fundamental rights, and power imbalances in the case of ETIAS’, followed by discussion.
Abstract:
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly pervading and reshaping public sector decision-making, not least in the fields of security, law enforcement and migration management. In the EU, like elsewhere, this has largely taken place in the context of developing a security agenda as a strategic response to terrorist incidents, especially since 9/11, in combination with increased immigration flows. The EU has, thus, adopted swiftly and uncritically various measures, including the establishment of new large-scale information systems to surveil the movement of third country nationals, the upgrading of older ones, and the development of interoperability components to interconnect them all, under the guise of internal security. The main objective has been to pre-emptively identify ‘risky’ individuals and to prevent them from arriving at the borders.
Against this background, this presentation explores the legal and institutional implications raised by the embedment of algorithmic profiling, an originally criminal-law-purposed tool, in EU large-scale IT systems to enable predictive risk assessments of non-citizens. It does so by focusing on the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) as a case-study, which will be the first system to be deployed with a profiling functionality (in spring 2025). I argue that profiling, as envisaged in ETIAS, raises unresolved fundamental rights challenges, not only regarding the rights to privacy and data protection, but also non-discrimination and access to justice. I also argue that its technical and institutional design entails a centralization of power in EU agencies (and primarily Frontex) which raises important questions about accountability deficits.
*This presentation is based on a draft chapter of her doctoral thesis on “Technology, Migration & Fundamental Rights in European Law: the case of large-scale information systems”.
This event will be in a hybrid format (both on-campus and online). Interested participants wishing to take part can register by sending an email to Pablo.Rodrigo.Trigo.Kramcsak@vub.be