Security-Privacy-Cost Matrix Pilot Session on November 7th, in Dublin, Ireland

On the 6th and 7th of November, the Steering Committee of the Gatherings project took place in Dublin, Ireland, hosted by our partner Trilateral Research. One of the primary objectives of this Steering Committee was hosting the Pilot Test of the Security-Privacy-Cost Matrix, one of the project’s major deliverables and the outcome of Work Package 3 – Striking a balance between security, privacy, and costs of surveillance.

The goal of this matrix is to be an accessible tool, to be used by surveillance professionals, policymakers, local administrations, and event organisers, to weigh security against privacy, economic cost, and social impact. It aims to be utilised as a critical thinking aid with a focus on technological solutions used to ensure the security and safety of public gatherings.

During this Pilot Test, we discussed the preliminary version of the security-privacy-cost evaluation matrix under the guidance of Trilateral Research. The aim was to gather contributions and feedback from all participants, both those physically present and those who participated online. Participants were divided into groups and provided with preliminary physical copies of the Matrix, developed by Trilateral Research and designed by LOBA. Two event scenarios were given: one in a controlled environment and another in an uncontrolled/open access environment. The task was to choose the best security solutions, following the guidelines of the matrix. The Matrix was designed as a three-step process:

1. Define the problem and establish potential solutions – represented in Part A, which focused on goal definition, problem description, and selection of assessment alternatives. This section helps clarify the purpose and desired outcomes of the decision-making process.
2. Assess the solutions selected from a security-cost-efficiency point of view – represented in Part B, the Multi-Factor Assessment, which guides the critical thinking process when analysing the benefits and trade-offs for each selected technology option.
3. Evaluation and Selection Support for new technologies​ – represented in Part C, which aims to support technology options ranking based on a series of measurable indicators and assist the decision-maker in selecting the best alternatives for the established goals. This part of the Matrix was conducted in the Pilot Test and consisted of a Q&A session and a brief assessment to summarise the strong and weak points of each selected security option.

Overall, participants were invited to share their perceptions of each part, as well as their overall views of the matrix. Recommendations for improvements were provided, especially since many participants represent the target group of the matrix. Consequently, this version will be further refined to meet users’ needs.

The GATHERINGS project partners want to ensure that our outputs are usable by practitioners. With that in mind, Trilateral Research organised the Dublin workshop to enable practitioners to contribute to the design of the project’s Privacy-Security-Costs Matrix. To this end, we brought together members of the GATHERINGS project consortium, members of our Community of Practitioners (CoP) Network, as well as external guests from private companies, academia, think tanks and NGOs for two days of meetings, discussions, and feedback on our project outputs. The event was ambitious in scope, as it included a Steering Committee Meeting, a workshop on the in-development Security-Privacy-Cost Matrix, a CoP Network meeting, as well as a dedicated Pilot to test the aforementioned Matrix on realistic scenarios. Discussion points and feedback collected were extremely valuable in helping us tailor our project matrix to the needs of security practitioners and event organisers.

(Joshua Hughes and Iohana Voicu, Trilateral Research)

Stay tuned to learn about the next steps in the development of the Gatherings security-privacy-cost matrix!