Full text via link. Klager is minderjarig en wordt verdacht van betrokkenheid bij een moord op een politieman door dissidente Republikeinen in Noord-Ierland. Hij is tot driemaal toe gearresteerd om met de politie te spreken. Bij de derde keer vraagt zijn advocaat om te verzekeren dat de gesprekken tussen hem en de klager niet aan ‘covert surveillance’ zullen worden onderworpen, maar dit kon bevestigd noch ontkend worden. Volgens klager is het regime voor ‘covert surveillance’ in strijd met art. 8 EVRM. De eerste vraag die het Hof daarbij heeft te beantwoorden is of in dit geval de heel strenge eisen moeten worden gesteld die het gebruikelijk stelt bij interceptie van telefoongesprekken, of de iets lichtere die het normaliter stelt bij ‘gewone’ gevallen van surveillance. Het Hof geeft toe dat het in eerdere rechtspraak de strenge eisen inderdaad alleen bij telefoontaps heeft gesteld, maar stelt voorop dat het heeft aangenomen, bijvoorbeeld in Bykov, dat deze eisen ook moeten worden gesteld als een andere vorm van surveillance ‘virtually identical’ is aan telefoontappen (Bykov t. Rusland, EHRM 10 maart 2009 (GK), nr. 4378/02 «EHRC» 2009/69 m.nt. Ölçer). De doorslaggevende factor voor de toepasselijke test is de mate van inbreuk op het individuele recht op bescherming van het privéleven. In dit geval ging het om surveillance van juridische consultaties tussen advocaat en cliënt, waarbij geldt dat een bijzondere mate van bescherming nodig is in verband met de vertrouwelijkheid van deze relatie. Het surveilleren van deze consultatie vormt een ‘extremely high degree of intrusion’ in de art. 8-rechten, die nog verder gaat dan die in Bykov. Gelet daarop moeten dezelfde strenge eisen worden gesteld als in het geval van telefoontaps. Het Hof onderwerpt dan het bestaande ‘RIPA II’-regime aan deze toets, waarbij het de regels aanvaardbaar acht waar het gaat om de duur, de selectie van de relevante persoon en de maatregelen rondom voortzetting en beëindiging, maar waarbij het kritisch is waar het gaat om het onderzoeken, bewaren en gebruiken van de verkregen gegevens, en waar het gaat om het delen van deze gegevens met derde partijen. Deze kritiek is zodanig dat het Hof vaststelt dat art. 8 EVRM niet voldoende is gerespecteerd. De tweede vraag die het Hof is voorgelegd is of het redelijk was om de gesprekken te monitoren tussen klager als ‘vulnerable person’ en een ‘appropriate adult’. Het Hof neemt aan dat hierop het lichtere regime van toepassing is en concludeert dat in dit licht wel voldoende waarborgen zijn geboden en er geen schending is van art. 8 EVRM in dit opzicht.
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Home automation that allows for telecare services is increasingly becoming a tool to help older adults live independently and to improve perceived safety and security. The number of older adults receiving professional care, in relation to housing, on a daily basis is not very large. Only 15% receives home care, 5% lives in a care home, and about 2.5% resides in a nursing home. The majority of older adults live in the community. The Unattended Autonomous Surveillance system by TNO Defense is an integrated system that combines many functionalities for community-dwelling (older) adults, who are entitled to receiving nursing home care based on official assessments. The technology is implemented among people in the towns of Baarn and Soest in the centre of the Netherlands. The UAS system aims to support Ageing-in-Place and delaying the demand for expensive institutional care. Besides the benefits for the care recipient, informal or family carers are supported in care through the technology installed as well. Professional carers, for instance, home care, can benefit from the increased self care capabilities of the care recipient. In cases of emergency, i.e., when alarms are activated, people in the care centre can access the home via a camera. The aim is to study the perceptions of independent living, the role and quality of care received, and how people think technology can support them in their daily lives. This is the first round of interviewing on a total of three rounds. Methods In order to investigate the needs of the users, phenomenological qualitative research is carried out among a group of 30 independently living older adults (some with mild psychogeriatric health problems) and their (family) carers, using semi-structured questionnaires on home care received, demand for care, use and need of assistive technologies and perceived safety and security. The questionnaires were based on earlier work by Bijsterveld1 and Demeris et al.2. The first part of the study, performed between May and September 2007, included 14 subjects. The transcripts were analysed using the MAXQDA program. First, each transcript was read in its entirety. Then, they were read a second time to develop codes that were grouped into themes consistent with the interviews, which emerged from the narratives and the interview guides. To be considered a major theme, the code had to have appeared in more than 25% of the narratives and more than once in each of the narratives. Third, quotes that summarised the essence of each person’s subjective experience were recorded. Finally, a master list of themes from each interview was developed to allow for easy cross-interview examination. Results and discussion Preliminary results showed a positive attitude of older adults towards the system as a means to provide additional telecare and to increase perceived security in their surroundings. The fact that professional carers are immediately available after an emergency call, for instance via video communication, eases their feelings of insecurity. Family carers were more enthusiast about the system than many older adults, because the UAS system that is always present and vigilant takes away a part of the care burden. The over-time contribution of the UAS system to independence is to be studied.
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This paper will describe the rationale and findings from a multinational study of online uses and gratifications conducted in the United States, Korea, and the Netherlands in spring 2003. A survey research method of study was conducted using a questionnaire developed in three languages and was presented to approximately 400 respondents in each country via the Web. Web uses and gratifications were analyzed cross-nationally in a comparative fashion and focused on the perceived involvement in different types of on-line communities. Findings indicate that demographic characteristics, cultural values, and Internet connection type emerged as critical factors that explain why the same technology is adopted differently. The analyses identified seven major gratifications sought by users in each country: social support, surveillance & advice, learning, entertainment, escape, fame & aesthetic, and respect. Although the Internet is a global medium, in general, web use is more local and regional. Evidence of media use and cultural values reported by country and online community supports the hypothesis of a technological convergence between societies, not a cultural convergence.
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In veel Afrikaanse landen zien we een inperking van de maatschappelijke ruimte (‘civic space’). Deze ruimte is cruciaal om in democratische staten transparantie, vrijheid van meningsuiting en verantwoording van bestuur te realiseren. In een steeds sterke digitaliserende maatschappij wordt toegang tot digitale middelen een mensenrecht. Daar waar regeringen proberen hun burgers en organisaties dat recht tot digitale informatievoorziening en –uitwisselingen te ontnemen komen de Sustainable Development Goals in het gedrang. Doel African Digital Rights Network (ADRN) wil inzicht verkrijgen in de stakeholders ne technologieën die betrokken zijn net het openen of onderdrukken van de online maatschappelijke ruimte (‘civic space’). Het netwerk beoogt bij te dragen aam empowerment van burgers om hun digitale mensenrechten uit te oefenen. Resultaten ADRN heeft een vergelijkende studie van 10 Afrikaanse landen uitgevoerd naar het gebruik van digitale technologieën voor het openen of onderdrukken van de online maatschappelijke ruimte (‘civic space’). Het project heeft onder andere geleidt tot de volgende publicatie: Mapping the Supply of Surveillance Technologies to Africa: Case Studies from Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco, Malawi, and Zambia Looptijd 01 mei 2020 - 20 april 2021 Aanpak ADRN organiseert een netwerk van onderzoekers, analisten, digitale rechtenorganisaties en activisten om de dynamiek van het openen en onderdrukken van de digitale maatschappelijke ruimte in kaart te brengen. Het netwerk bouwt op een interdisciplinaire onderzoeksaanpak o.l.v. het Institute for Development Studies, een vooraanstaand onderzoeksinstituut. Relevantie van het project Het onderzoek leidt tot aanbevelingen voor o.a. beleidsmakers en maatschappelijke organisaties ter bevordering van de digitale maatschappelijke ruimte. Daarnaast worden digitale tools en trainingsmateriaal gefaciliteerd voor het monitoren van ontwikkelingen en dreigingen van de digitale maatschappelijke ruimte. CofinancieringDit onderzoek wordt gefinancierd door UKRI - GCRF Digital Innovation for Development in Africa (DIDA)Meer weten? UKRI GCRF: African Digital Rights Network Website ADRN
Drones have been verified as the camera of 2024 due to the enormous exponential growth in terms of the relevant technologies and applications such as smart agriculture, transportation, inspection, logistics, surveillance and interaction. Therefore, the commercial solutions to deploy drones in different working places have become a crucial demand for companies. Warehouses are one of the most promising industrial domains to utilize drones to automate different operations such as inventory scanning, goods transportation to the delivery lines, area monitoring on demand and so on. On the other hands, deploying drones (or even mobile robots) in such challenging environment needs to enable accurate state estimation in terms of position and orientation to allow autonomous navigation. This is because GPS signals are not available in warehouses due to the obstruction by the closed-sky areas and the signal deflection by structures. Vision-based positioning systems are the most promising techniques to achieve reliable position estimation in indoor environments. This is because of using low-cost sensors (cameras), the utilization of dense environmental features and the possibilities to operate in indoor/outdoor areas. Therefore, this proposal aims to address a crucial question for industrial applications with our industrial partners to explore limitations and develop solutions towards robust state estimation of drones in challenging environments such as warehouses and greenhouses. The results of this project will be used as the baseline to develop other navigation technologies towards full autonomous deployment of drones such as mapping, localization, docking and maneuvering to safely deploy drones in GPS-denied areas.
The utilization of drones in various industries, such as agriculture, infrastructure inspection, and surveillance, has significantly increased in recent years. However, navigating low-altitude environments poses a challenge due to potential collisions with “unseen” obstacles like power lines and poles, leading to safety concerns and equipment damage. Traditional obstacle avoidance systems often struggle with detecting thin and transparent obstacles, making them ill-suited for scenarios involving power lines, which are essential yet difficult to perceive visually. Together with partners that are active in logistics and safety and security domains, this project proposal aims at conducting feasibility study on advanced obstacle detection and avoidance system for low-flying drones. To that end, the main research question is, “How can AI-enabled, robust and module invisible obstacle avoidance technology can be developed for low-flying drones? During this feasibility study, cutting-edge sensor technologies, such as LiDAR, radar, camera and advanced machine learning algorithms will be investigated to what extent they can be used be to accurately detect “Not easily seen” obstacles in real-time. The successful conclusion of this project will lead to a bigger project that aims to contribute to the advancement of drone safety and operational capabilities in low-altitude environments, opening new possibilities for applications in industries where low-flying drones and obstacle avoidance are critical.
