Vapauden loppu julkisilla paikoilla? : Eurooppalaisen julkisen tilan valvonnasta johtuvat yksityisyyden suojaan liittyvät ongelmat

This dissertation analyses specific privacy problems arising from the surveillance of public spaces. It studies the scope and limitations of the human right to privacy and a right to personal data protection in light of advanced surveillance and security technologies. The main research question therefore asks how the existing European fundamental rights to privacy and data protection address increasing surveillance and the unprecedented surveillance capabilities of public spaces in Europe. This study is divided into two main parts. After introducing the research problem and a descriptive discussion of existing and future surveillance technologies, the first part discusses the theoretical conceptions behind this research, namely the concept of public space, privacy, data protection and security. Part two of this study then discusses four more specific issues in relation to public space surveillance: Individually targeted surveillance, mass surveillance, surveillance done by private actors, automation of surveillance, and incident prediction. In order to address the research question, this study analyses existing legislation, jurisprudence and specific cases. The overall framework for analyses is derived from a fictional urban surveillance scenario, representing a large European city. This surveillance scenario serves as an anchor point to identify central problems and issues for further fundamental rights based analyses. In that sense, this study uses legal and critical analyses of a specific scenario in order to identify existing, but also potential future legal problems arising from sophisticated public space surveillance. This study consequently identifies several ways to address public space surveillance from a European fundamental rights perspective. The analyses of a right to privacy and a right to personal data protection show that the European system of fundamental rights protection is very well capable of addressing legal problems arising from public surveillance. However, there is a lack of available case law dealing with complex technological surveillance in Europe. This study therefore distils two main approaches for addressing public surveillance: The first approach is based on individual freedom, relying on the legitimate expectations of legal subjects, the second, which is derived from human dignity and personality rights, challenges the communal effects of surveillance. Each approach comes with a fundamentally opposite take on public surveillance. Furthermore, this study shows, how data protection functions as a gap-filler between the two approaches. In its conclusion, this study therefore illustrates several ways to address public space surveillance, and it shows that there is a series of legal problems arising from sophisticated technological surveillance, which require a reformulation of legal arguments addressing public place surveillance.Tämä väitöskirja analysoi julkisen tilan valvonnasta johtuvia erityisiä yksityisyyden suojaan liittyviä ongelmia. Väitöskirja tutkii yksityisyyden ja henkilötietojen suojaa koskevien ihmisoikeuksien laajuutta ja niiden rajoituksia edistyksellisten valvonta- ja turvallisuusteknologioiden valossa. Päätutkimuskysymys on, miten eurooppalaiset yksityisyyden suojaa ja tietosuojaa koskevat perusoikeudet käsittelevät lisääntyvää valvontaa ja eurooppalaisiin julkisiin tiloihin kohdistuvia ennennäkemättömiä valvontamahdollisuuksia. Tutkimus on jaettu kahteen pääosaan. Tutkimusongelman ja olemassa olevien ja tulevaisuuden valvontateknologioiden esittelyn jälkeen ensimmäinen osa käsittelee tutkimuksen teoreettisia lähtökohtia, erityisesti julkisen tilan, yksityisyyden, tietosuojan ja turvallisuuden käsitteitä. Tutkimuksen toinen osa käsittelee neljää erityistä julkiseen valvontaan liittyvää kysymystä: yksilöllisesti kohdistettua valvontaa, joukkovalvontaa, yksityisten toimijoiden tekemää valvontaa sekä valvonnan automatisointia ja tapahtumien ennakointia. Tutkimuskysymystä analysoidaan olemassa olevaa lainsäädäntöä, oikeuskirjallisuutta ja oikeuskäytäntöä vasten. Analyyseissä käytetty viitekehys on johdettu kuvitellusta urbaanista valvontaan liittyvästä skenaariosta, joka kuvaa isoa eurooppalaista kaupunkia. Tämä valvontaan liittyvä skenaario toimii ankkurina keskeisten ongelmien ja kysymysten tunnistamiselle perusoikeuksiin pohjautuvia jatkoanalyysejä varten. Tutkimus käyttää tietystä skenaariosta tehtyjä oikeudellisia ja kriittisiä analyysejä olemassa olevien sekä myös mahdollisten tulevien julkisen tilan edistyneestä valvonnasta johtuvien oikeudellisten ongelmien tunnistamiseksi. Tämä tutkimus tunnistaa useita tapoja käsitellä julkisen tilan valvontaa eurooppalaisesta perusoikeuksien näkökulmasta. Yksityisyyden suojaa ja henkilötietojen suojaa koskevien oikeuksien analyysit osoittavat, että eurooppalainen perusoikeusjärjestelmä kykenee käsittelemään julkisen tilan valvontaan liittyviä oikeudellisia ongelmia. Euroopassa on kuitenkin pulaa monimutkaista teknistä valvontaa käsittelevästä oikeuskäytännöstä. Tutkimuksessa määritellään kaksi pääasiallista lähestymistapaa julkiseen valvontaan: ensimmäinen lähestymistapa perustuu yksilöiden vapauteen ja nojaa oikeussubjektien luottamuksensuojaan. Jälkimmäinen lähestymistapa, joka on johdettu ihmisarvosta ja persoonallisuusoikeudesta, haastaa valvonnan yhteisölliset vaikutukset. Näillä näkökulmilla on perustavanlaatuisesti vastakkainen lähestymistapa julkiseen valvontaan. Tutkimus osoittaa, miten tietosuoja toimii siltana näiden kahden näkökulman välillä. Tutkimuksen johtopäätökset havainnollistavat useita tapoja käsitellä julkisen tilan valvontaa ja osoittavat, että edistynyt tekninen valvonta aiheuttaa sarjan oikeudellisia ongelmia, jotka edellyttävät julkisen tilan valvontaa koskevien oikeudellisten argumenttien uudelleenmuotoilua

Complexity in Education for Sustainable Consumption—An Educational Data Mining Approach using Mysteries

Systems thinking is one of the skills necessary for sustainable behavior, especially regarding sustainable consumption. Students are faced with complexity and uncertainty while taking part in it and other daily life aspects. There is a need to foster their competence in this field. From a classroom point of view, the mystery method is an example for implementing education for sustainable consumption and working with complex and uncertain content. With the mystery method students construct an influence diagram, which consists of concepts and requires several skills, especially in decision-making. Using these diagrams as a form of assessment is desirable but also very difficult, because of the mentioned complexity and uncertainty that is part of the task itself. The study presented here tackles this problem by creating an expert based reference diagram that has been constructed with the help of educational data mining. The result shows that it is possible to derive such a reference even if parts remain ambiguous due to the inherent complexity. The reference may now be used to assess students’ systems thinking abilities, which will be undertaken in future research. Beside this, the reference can be used as a reflective tool in lessons, so students can compare their own content knowledge and discuss differences to the experts’ reference

Band filling and interband scattering effects in MgB2_2: C vs Al doping

We argue, based on band structure calculations and Eliashberg theory, that the observed decrease of $T_c$ of Al and C doped MgB$_2$ samples can be understood mainly in terms of a band filling effect due to the electron doping by Al and C. A simple scaling of the electron-phonon coupling constant $\lambda$ by the variation of the density of states as function of electron doping is sufficient to capture the experimentally observed behavior. Further, we also explain the long standing open question of the experimental observation of a nearly constant $\pi$ gap as function of doping by a compensation of the effect of band filling and interband scattering. Both effects together generate a nearly constant $\pi$ gap and shift the merging point of both gaps to higher doping concentrations, resolving the discrepancy between experiment and theoretical predictions based on interband scattering only.Comment: accepted by PR

The Mystery Method Reconsidered—A Tool for Assessing Systems Thinking in Education for Sustainable Development

Influence diagrams, derived from the mystery method as its learning output, represent an externalization of systems thinking and are, therefore, valid to research; so far they have not been conceptualized in the research literature for teaching systems thinking in education for sustainable development. In this study, 31 of those diagrams are confronted with (1) three different expert references, in (2) two different ways, by (3) three different scoring systems to determine which evaluation option is both valid and easy to implement. As a benchmark, the diagrams’ diameters are used, which allows statements about the quality of the maps/diagrams in general. The results show that, depending on the combination of variables that play a role in the evaluation (1, 2, 3), the quality of the influence diagram becomes measurable. However, strong differences appear in the various evaluation schemes, which can be explained by each variable’s peculiarities. Overall, the tested methodology is effective, but will need to be sharpened in the future. The results also offer starting points for future research to further deepen the path taken here

Colloids dragged through a polymer solution: experiment, theory and simulation

We present micro-rheological measurments of the drag force on colloids pulled through a solution of lambda-DNA (used here as a monodisperse model polymer) with an optical tweezer. The experiments show a violation of the Stokes-Einstein relation based on the independently measured viscosity of the DNA solution: the drag force is larger than expected. We attribute this to the accumulation of DNA infront of the colloid and the reduced DNA density behind the colloid. This hypothesis is corroborated by a simple drift-diffusion model for the DNA molecules, which reproduces the experimental data surprisingly well, as well as by corresponding Brownian dynamics simulations.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures, 3 table

How to address data privacy concerns when using social media data in conservation science

Social media data are being increasingly used in conservation science to study human–nature interactions. User-generated content, such as images, video, text, and audio, and the associated metadata can be used to assess such interactions. A number of social media platforms provide free access to user-generated social media content. However, similar to any research involving people, scientific investigations based on social media data require compliance with highest standards of data privacy and data protection, even when data are publicly available. Should social media data be misused, the risks to individual users’ privacy and well-being can be substantial. We investigated the legal basis for using social media data while ensuring data subjects’ rights through a case study based on the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. The risks associated with using social media data in research include accidental and purposeful misidentification that has the potential to cause psychological or physical harm to an identified person. To collect, store, protect, share, and manage social media data in a way that prevents potential risks to users involved, one should minimize data, anonymize data, and follow strict data management procedure. Risk-based approaches, such as a data privacy impact assessment, can be used to identify and minimize privacy risks to social media users, to demonstrate accountability and to comply with data protection legislation. We recommend that conservation scientists carefully consider our recommendations in devising their research objectives so as to facilitate responsible use of social media data in conservation science research, for example, in conservation culturomics and investigations of illegal wildlife trade online.Peer reviewe

Late Quaternary glacial/interglacial variability in Arctic sea ice and related organic carbon flux: A 180 ka record from Yermak Plateau

The recent dramatic decline of Arctic sea over the last decades and its controlling processes are still poorly understood. In order to distinguish between natural and anthropogenic processes controlling these changes in sea ice, we have to look back to the past beyond the times of direct measurements. For this purpose, we carried out a multi-proxy approach combining organic-geochemical data (bulk parameters: C/N, TOC, δ13Corg; biomarkers: IP25, sterols, GDGTs) with sedimentological data (core lithology, physical properties, IRD counting, XRF scanning) determined in sediments of Yermak Plateau Core PS92/039-2. This core is situated close to the modern summer ice edge and thus very sensitive for environmental changes. Based on magnetostratigraphy and correlations with dated sediment cores, this core represents the time span from MIS 6 to 1 (ca. 180,000 years) and allows the reconstruction of sea ice variability and related changes in oceanic circulation patterns and the Svalbard Barents Ice Sheet (SBIS) fluctuations during glacial/interglacial changes. As sea ice and phytoplankton biomarkers occur throughout the entire sedimentary section but show some strong variability, a more seasonal sea ice cover was probably predominant during the entire time interval, superimposed by a distinct short-term variability in extent. Significant fluctuations in most of our proxy records indicate highly variable sea ice conditions over the Yermak Plateau during MIS 6. Based on our biomarker data, the SBIS could not have reached the Yermak Plateau during MIS 6. During MIS 4 and 2, coevally elevated concentrations of the sea ice proxy IP25 and the biomarkers for phytoplankton productivity and terrigenous input point to a stationary ice margin above the core position at that time. Strengthened Atlantic Water inflow possibly coupled with katabatic winds from the protruding SBIS may have created this stable ice edge situation and the related sedimentary regime

Peripheral signaling pathways contributing to non-histaminergic itch in humans

BACKGROUND: Chronic itch (chronic pruritus) is a major therapeutic challenge that remains poorly understood despite the extensive recent analysis of human pruriceptors. It is unclear how the peripheral nervous system differentiates the signaling of non-histaminergic itch and pain. METHODS: Here we used psychophysical analysis and microneurography (single nerve fiber recordings) in healthy human volunteers to explore the distinct signaling mechanisms of itch, using the pruritogens β-alanine, BAM 8-22 and cowhage extract. RESULTS: The mode of application (injection or focal application using inactivated cowhage spicules) influenced the itch/pain ratio in sensations induced by BAM 8-22 and cowhage but not β-alanine. We found that sensitizing pre-injections of prostaglandin E2 increased the pain component of BAM 8-22 but not the other pruritogens. A-fibers contributed only to itch induced by β-alanine. TRPV1 and TRPA1 were necessary for itch signaling induced by all three pruritogens. In single-fiber recordings, we found that BAM 8-22 and β-alanine injection activated nearly all CM-fibers (to different extents) but not CMi-fibers, whereas cowhage extract injection activated only 56% of CM-fibers but also 25% of CMi-fibers. A "slow bursting discharge pattern" was evoked in 25% of CM-fibers by β-alanine, in 35% by BAM 8-22, but in only 10% by cowhage extract. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that no labeled line exists for these pruritogens in humans. A combination of different mechanisms, specific for each pruritogen, leads to itching sensations rather than pain. Notably, non-receptor-based mechanisms such as spatial contrast or discharge pattern coding seem to be important processes. These findings will facilitate the discovery of therapeutic targets for chronic pruritus, which are unlikely to be treated effectively by single receptor blockade

Late Quaternary sea-ice history of northern Fram Strait/Arctic Ocean

One of the main characteristics of the Arctic Ocean is its seasonal to perennial sea-ice cover. Variations of sea-ice conditions affect the Earth’s albedo, primary production, rate of deep-water etc.. During the last decades, a drastic decrease in sea ice has been recorded, and the causes of which, i.e. natural vs. anthropogenic forcings, and their relevance within the global climate system, are subject of intense scientific and societal debate. In this context, records of past sea-ice conditions going beyond instrumental records are of major significance. These records may help to better understand the processes controlling natural sea-ice variability and to improve models for forecasts of future climatic conditions. During RV Polarstern Cruise PS92 in summer 2015, a 860 cm long sediment core (PS92/039-2) was re- covered from the eastern flank of Yermak Plateau north of the Svalbard archipelago (Peeken, 2015). Based on a preliminary age model, this sediment core probably represents the time interval from MIS 6 to MIS 1. This core, located close to the modern summer ice edge, has been selected for reconstruction of past Arctic sea-ice variability based on specific biomarkers. In this context, we have determined the ice-algae-derived sea-ice proxy IP25 (Belt et al., 2007), in combination with other biomarkers indicative for open-water conditions (cf., Müller et al., 2009, 2011). Furthermore, organic carbon fluxes were differentiated using specific biomarkers indicative for marine primary production (brassicasterol, dinosterol) and terrigenous input (campesterol, β-sitosterol). In this poster, preliminary results of our organic-geochemical and sedimentological investigations are presented. Distinct fluctuations of these biomarkers indicate several major, partly abrupt changes in sea-ice cover in the Yermak Plateau area during the late Quaternary. These changes are probably linked to changes in the inflow of Atlantic Water along the western coastline of Svalbard into the Arctic Ocean. Furthermore, the repetitive advance and retreat of the Svalbard Barents Sea Ice Sheet might have influenced the terrigenous input and the environmental setting north of Svalbard, as reflected in the sediment composition of Core PS92/039-2