Rising Pan European and International Awareness of Biometrics and Security Ethics (RISE) is an international initiative for promoting Awareness on Ethical Aspects of Biometrics and Security Technologies. RISE is convening the multi-stakeholder Conference which will advance and further promote stakeholder involvement including regulators, responsible agencies, lawmaking bodies, industry, third party privacy solutions providers and consumer representatives in setting technology security policy in Europe.

Building on the three RISE workshops held before this event, the main aims of the meeting are to deepen and enlarge stakeholder involvement in policy setting and improve their ability to frame questions and hold policymakers accountable for their actions, or lack thereof. 

High level speakers from policy, research, industry and from user groups will address the conference.

The earlier European privacy project, HIDE (Homeland Security, Biometric Identification & Personal Detection Ethics) will run a final Meeting and Workshop during the RISE Conference on Wednesday, 8 September.

Emilio Mordini, co-ordinator of RISE explains: "Security is an area where ethics and fundamental values have rarely been considered relevant. The nature of security has led to arguments about a particular need for secrecy and efficiency of decisions, which many consider difficult to reconcile with the requirements for democratic accountability and respect for ethical principles. Yet the novel assumption, which follows the Treaty of Lisbon, that security policies as well as  international agreements relevant to them, have to be consistent with EU values and the Charter of Fundamental Rights demands a paradigm shift. The whole sense of EU  internal and external policies needs to be transformed, and traditional approaches have to be reframed, thinking for instance of the shift from data protection as an element related to the free movement of people across EU internal borders, to a constitutive citizens’ right."