| Balancing Privacy, Security & Technology |
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The number of video cameras in any large city, the move to using credit cards for all purchases and the capacity and speed of
databases can lead to the feeling that we are being watched and identified too often by too many people. The reality is that we are being watched and have always been watched. The difference between now and 50 years ago is that these days, our details and/or images end up on databases or video libraries in the hands of people we probably do not know. |
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| Faced with high levels of surveillance and an increasing need to identify ourselves as part of everyday transactions, we could be forgiven for thinking that it has become almost impossible to maintain our privacy. The rise in the use of surveillance technologies is generally justified by the need to maintain a safe society. This change in our society raises the question of whether we can have a society that is safe and open, and still respects privacy. |
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| One of the greatest concerns regarding the rise of the ‘surveillance society’ is that we are being increasingly identified as we come under greater surveillance. Surveillance does not have to be used in this way but it seems that many developers have given little attention to the impact of the technologies they implement on privacy. |
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| Identity and new technologies |
| New technologies do not necessarily destroy privacy. They can be either privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) or privacy intrusive technologies (PITs), depending on how they are designed and the uses to which they are put. |
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Technologies have the potential to be more privacy invasive where they are used by organization to obtain large amounts of information about individuals which that organization may not need, or that the individual may not know about. Take for example, credit card companies. In the process of compiling your monthly account, a credit card company acquires information about where you have shopped, what you have purchased, how much you paid and when you bought it. This can distort the balance between individual privacy and other social needs.
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| Source: Security Solutions Magazine - Issue 29 |
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