Danish Biometrics is involved in the launch of The European Privacy Institute.

Marking privacy as the starting point we need a synthesis between technology and privacy approaches. A key issue is how we can integrate values like privacy and ethics in future product designs and technologies in a suitable manner.

Today non-European research and development in privacy issues is concentrated on a couple of private global companies like IBM, Microsoft and KPMG and public institutions like The Canadian Privacy Institute. This is compared with a lot of European activities like PRIME, FIDIS, BITE, POORVO, Art. 29 WG among others. The initiatives are mostly temporary and done to solve specific, practical questions involving a limited number of participants only. Moreover non-coordinated but substantial research take place at University level around Europe.

Both political as well as social-ethical reasons calls for a joint and coordinated initiative with an independent, coherent and holistic scientific and academic approach on an active, diligent, and systematic process of inquiry aimed at discovering, interpreting, and revising facts about privacy put into an European context. A permanent European institute dedicated to both basic and applied research and education would be in a position to create a vibrant environment and awareness and being the motive power in developing Centres of Excellence to support both EU member states as industry. The scope and complexity of privacy and ICT require close collaboration across many disciplines and skills. It seems obvious that the Institute would be organized around a set of research themes that will address major opportunities and challenges that are too complex for individuals or even small groups of researchers to tackle on their own.

The European Privacy Institute Initiative is a formalised European network of universities, research institutions, authorities, public and private organizations and companies dedicated to launch The European Privacy Institute.

An Executive Committee has just recently been created in order to present the idea to the European Commission and Council and Parliament. A Scientific Advisory Committee has been established in order to assist the Executive Committee, to advice on statutes of the Institute and to promote the highest possible research standards. It is the intention that the Scientific Advisory Committee should have representatives from universities and research institutions from all 27 EU countries and further associated EU countries and EU candidate Countries.

Director Frederik Kortbæk, Chairman of Danish Biometrics is member of the Executive Commitee together with Professor Dr. Juliet Lodge, University of Leeds, CEO Max Snijder, European Biometrics Forum and Associate Professor Niels Christian Juul, Roskilde University, Deputy Chairman of Danish Biometrics.

The European Privacy Institute Initiative will soon have its own blog on www.privacyinstitute.eu