AA

How are we preparing for the next catastrophic event?

In 2019, the world’s fifteen most destructive events caused 4,500 victims.

Responding to these kinds of challenges, CyberEthics Lab. is partner in the ASSISTANCE project (Adapted Situation AwareneSS tools and taIlored training scenarios for increaSing capabiliTies and enhANcing the proteCtion of First RespondErs) studying how to improve the effectiveness of interventions by first responder organizations such as LEAs, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel, who play a key role in dealing with large natural and human-caused disasters.

ASSISTANCE is a project focused on enhancing the capacity of first responders to operate safely in widely varying disaster scenarios. In addition to identifying and defining new models of cooperation among different types of first responder organizations for the mitigation of major disasters, the project also enhances their capabilities to deal with complex situations related to different types of incidents through the use of technologies such as UAV3, smart sensors wearable by operators, swarms of robots and drones equipped with specific sensors to respond to the needs and contingencies of command of rescue operations. The project results will then be validated under controlled simulations of distructive events during three different pilots.

ASSISTANCE also aims to create an advanced European training network based on the use of virtual reality, mixed reality and augmented reality to empower first responders by taking into account the expectations and professional development needs of the operator/operator.

In this context, CyberEthics Lab. assesses the worthiness of innovative solutions designed to cushion the impact of disasters through ethical considerations and respect for the human rights of victims and rescue workers. Gender-based differences, such as considerations based on the situation of vulnerability typical of a disaster event, are examples of elements of analysis for efficient relief efforts under conditions of maximum safety while respecting people.

Website: https://assistance-project.eu/

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 832576.

Service involved

Assessment of technology impact on privacy
We help our clients and partners to achieve their business goals while addressing ethics, privacy and cybersecurity concerns in a manner that prevents conflicts, sanctions and loss of money derived by the lack of ethical and legal compliance to national and European applicable regulations. All information technologies must respect human fundamental rights and ensure the rights of people in relation to the protection of their private life, personal data and freedom. The new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that replaced the Data Protection Directive in all EU member states on May 2018 introduces many new obligations for companies and a comprehensive set of rights for data subjects, including the right to an effective judicial remedy against a controller or a processor and the right to compensation. Therefore, in addition to being at the receiving end of an enforcement action, data controllers and processors may be subject to court proceedings and have to pay compensation to data subjects for their infringements of the GDPR. Our approach to help our clients to avoid this kind of issues consists of a holistic service composed by the following main components: providing a Data Protection Officer to drive the organization’s legal compliance action; mapping the data processed by the organisation to measure its impact on the ethical principles and legal framework; assessing the cybersecurity mechanisms used by the organisation technologies; conducting an impact assessment for all data processing mechanisms identifying ethical, legal and security risks; making recommendations for the implementation of the organisational and technical means to be compliant with the legal framework while ensuring data confidentiality (preserving authorized restrictions on information access and disclosure, including personal privacy and proprietary information protection), integrity (assurance that data is not modified or deleted in an unauthorized and undetected manner), availability (ensuring there’s timely and reliable access to and use of information) and accountability (supporting non‐repudiation, deterrence, fault isolation, intrusion detection and prevention, and after‐action recovery and legal action).
Social acceptance of technologies assessment
Connected, disruptive technologies permeate all aspects of our daily lives and pose challenges to the real foundation of human rights, such as the right to privacy or the freedom of speech. One could say that human values such as trust, accountability, and dignity are mutually influenced by the social acceptance of technologies. We support our clients to conceive a novel way of aligning the thus-far divergent concepts of sustainability, ethics impact, and technological innovation. By combining these three concepts, we respond to the need of a socially responsible innovation ecosystem by developing a tailored methodology for assessing users’/citizens’ social acceptance of technologies, a fundamental driver for technology market adoption. Our social acceptance framework includes six fundamental dimensions over which social acceptability (i.e. perception, motivation, trust, awareness, capacity enabling, and accountability) is measured and assessed through a two-step approach based on an online Sentiment Analysis (SA) – to create structured and actionable knowledge from the web – and the engagement of our client’s stakeholders (e.g. relevant target groups, associations of citizens, domain operators, decision makers, etc.) for the technology co-creation and communication regarding its social acceptance.
Responsible Research & Innovation
We love discovering and staying on top of new research to continuously advance our knowledge and to transform it into responsible innovation, taking into account effects and potential impacts on ethics, privacy and data protection. We help national and international partners to handle ethical, legal and cybersecurity concerns on both the research process and the project outcomes, through the legal support for the involvement of human beings in the research activity, the analysis of the national and regional legal framework applicable to the implementing technology and the recommendations for the secure and compliant development of technology. We are a multidisciplinary team that promotes the inclusion of legal and ethical concerns in the design of the technology, researching and producing new knowledge and best practices towards making a conscious and transparent adoption of technology.