Societally Acceptable and Ethically Sustainable Way of Performing Maritime Surveillance

Abstract

The ethical and societal dimensions of the RANGER solution encompass research, the technology itself, its use in diverse maritime surveillance activities, as well as the RANGER business, procurement and adoption models. The topics discussed in this deliverable include for instance border control, safety and security, customs, fisheries control and environment.

The biggest ethical and societal challenges are related to the use of RANGER in the border control. The tension between humanitarian values and duties and security (internal and external) in particular is also a politically sensitive topic and concerns the right of both EU citizens and migrants. However, this is not a challenge specific to RANGER, but has to do with the whole EU maritime surveillance policy. In the context of RANGER, the potential effects of the technology on irregular immigration and the illegal trafficking of humans and goods are important issues to be investigated during each implementation to ensure the effective fulfilment of human rights and other international obligations. The use of novel, advanced technology such as over the horizon (OTH) radars and advanced data fusion services makes the challenges even more pronounced.

Another central challenge for all maritime surveillance activities is related to data management and security. Although the current radar technologies are neither capable of or intending to directly capture information relating to natural persons, privacy and data protection under EU law are still to be taken into consideration in the RANGER development, use, and business model. Both the possibility to use RANGER data in combination with other data to identify natural persons, and possible future advancements in radar technology and data use mean that the compliance with relevant data protection legislation is central to ensure the long-term sustainability of the solution. The implementation of proper data security architecture and a Data Protection by Design/Default -approach to the development and use has thus been essential during the development of the RANGER solution. From the ethical and societal viewpoint, the importance of ethically and socially sustainable utilising of the data and the protection of the data from leakage and misuse (including to military tracks) cannot be overstated.

A third central ethical challenge is RANGER’s impact on the wildlife and humans. This theme emerged already during the initial societal impact assessment workshops in the beginning of the project. Regardless of whether negative impacts of RANGER on wildlife and humans are likely to take place or not, the concerns are real, and such need to be investigated and duly addressed. The problems have potential implications on at least the concern the design of the RANGER technology, the location and installation of the radars, as well as the use of the technology in various maritime surveillance activities. These concerns have also been addressed in a specific deliverable touching regulations and environmental standards (D3.11). Further, a specific botanical survey was carried out relating to the French pilots (on the Cap Bear site), as a specific requirement.

The structure of this deliverable is as follows. We begin by a short recap of the RANGER project and the maritime surveillance activities relevant to it. After that, we shed light on the international value basis of maritime surveillance in general and discuss the central ethical challenges of RANGER. In the following chapter, we provide a Societal Impact Assessment for the RANGER Solution. Finally based on these contents we will provide the Code of Conduct for RANGER that ensures the ethical use and further development of the solutions after the project.