RESPECT project deliberately sets out to differentiate itself with an approach that complements and builds upon previous studies but does not duplicate them. It does so through a combination of methods:
- By focusing on application areas which for some reason (e.g. because they are new emerging technologies or recent societal trends) have not been adequately studied to date;
- By adopting a comparative analysis methodology that is much wider than that taken in previous studies and in this case with a particularly pan-European and international approach;
- By consciously adopting an inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary approach which is both more diverse and more comprehensive than that taken in previous studies;
- By carefully examining the thrust and coverage of other major privacy/surveillance-related studies and EU FP7 projects (e.g. SMART and CONSENT) in an effort to feed directly from the results of other projects, build upon them and develop them further;
- By aiming at achieving practical results for key stakeholders capable of being deployed across and outside Europe
Five key categories of systems: CCTV systems (WP4), databases and data-mining (WP5), social network analysis (WP6), RFID and geo-locations (WP7) and systems tracking financial movements (WP8).