Engaging Privacy and Information Technology in a Digital Age

The Distinguish Between Information Security and Privacy

“…The "traditional intelligence endeavor, shaped by World War II and the ensuing Cold War, was focused on the preservation of the state from the threats posed by other states." [24] On the other side, this point of view may not be necessarily true. Of course, an opposing opinion that the more information collected, the more likely it is the relevant information will be lost within the huge amount of irrelevant collected information.…”

“…Such "tensions predate the information revolution, new technologies, new societal contexts, and new circumstances have sharply intensified that conflict, and even changed its focus." [26]. Furthermore, law enforcement is "an information-rich activity."…”

“…Generally talking, it is commonly believed that "the more the ability to gather information is constrained, the more likely it is that information of potential relevance to national security will be lost or overlooked." [24] The new changes and differences that can be seen are the technological way of collecting and analysing information that can be used by the intelligence agencies.…”

“…The nature and extent of privacy in any given context are tied to many factors, including the way in which information is accessed, the intentions of those accessing the information, and the trust relationships between the user of the information and the subject of the information." [26] Throughout what has been discussed in this paper, an essential question comes to mind regarding the extent to which there must be an action to be taken when law enforcement authorities or intelligence agencies intervene and break the privacy of innocent individuals that have not violated the law or do not represent a threat towards national security. In fact, it is not logical "to expect that the number of false positives (i.e., the number of people improperly implicated) can be reduced to zero, and thus public policy must necessarily anticipate that some such cases will arise."…”

“…One of the possible solutions is to reduce "the number of false positives, and in the event of a false positive, the person improperly implicated simply absorbs the cost and consequences of the false positive (e.g., loss of privacy and any consequential costs, such as personal embarrassment, financial loss, and so on) on behalf of the rest of society." [24] However, such costs, in fact, could be painful. It can be said that societies have generally agreed on the principle that people who have suffered from the government mistakes or improper actions deserve to get a kind of compensation.…”