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people who do not want to be observed by them? Should the devices be biodegradable
after use? (Morrison, 2007).
The Dutch ministry of Justice sent an evaluation of the personal data protection law to
the Parliament on 24 May 2007. The authors are concerned that the existing legislation is
inadequate to handle privacy aspects of new technologies including biometrics and
nanotechnology. (Zwenne et al, 2007)
The innovation observatory of MadrI+D in Madrid, has published a report comparing the
policy and technological aspects of novel biometric or electronic National Identity Cards
in a number of European countries and the USA. They found that “privacy issues raised
by the new identification systems are an important concern in several countries.” In
Belgium and Austria, privacy considerations have been taken into account in the design
of the cards. There is an intensive public debate on it in France and the UK. France has
postponed introduction of the new national ID card until 2008, and the UK foresees it in
2010. ID cards or passports with RFID chips are a particular concern, as the personal and
biometric data can be read without direct contact. In Germany, the Federal Office for
Information Security BSI has studied RFID security and biometric recognition techniques
(Vázquez Gallo & Sánchez Ávila, 2007).
Research on the ethical and social implications of biometrics under the EU project BITE,
also reveals similar issues of balancing privacy and security. The risk of “function creep”
or the unforeseen and unauthorised re-use of stored personal data is a key issue for
technologies used in biometrics as well as nano-based security technologies. DNA-based
identification technologies especially may make available not only information allowing
the identification of an individual, but also his or her genetic make-up which may then
potentially be abused for illegitimate purposes (Mordini & Petrini, 2007). As mentioned in
chapter 2 and 4, nanotechnology can also be applied in DNA sensor technologies.
5.3.3 Conclusions on impacts on ethics and human rights
At present, the potential impacts of nanotechnology based security technologies are still
unclear. The expected impacts of such research in general are to improve security for the
European citizen. However, the demand from end users for security technologies has not
been clearly articulated. In addition, the boundary between civil and military research is
eroding, and this may lead to unexpected security risks if new dual use technologies end
up in the wrong hands. Also, academic freedom and free trade may be further restricted,
even for traditional non-military technologies. RFID chips and other technologies may not
respect privacy and personal data protection legislation. This may be overcome by
introducing privacy enhancing technologies (PET). However, justice departments and
police forces are interested to use collected data for fighting crime and terrorism. These
issues have started a debate in the last few years in Europe and its Member States,
however the quality of the debate may be improved by providing complete information
on costs, expected benefits and risks, and discussing technical as well as non-technical
solutions to concrete security risks.
5.4 Public perception
The regular Eurobarometer surveys give an insight to European public opinion on
security, privacy and nanotechnology, and current public opinion seems to be more
concerned with security than with privacy or freedom.
According to a recent Special Eurobarometer survey on “The role of the European Union
in Justice, Freedom and Security policy areas” (European Commission, 2007), 56% of
respondents in the 25 EU member states 29 considered the “fight against organized crime
and trafficking” among the three priorities for the European Union in the Justice,
Freedom and Security Areas. This was immediately followed by 55% in favour of the
29 The survey was held in June – July 2006, before the accession of Bulgaria and Romania.
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