Security and Privacy

1. Introduction

1.1. The two topics that I choose to compare are security or the need to protect ourselves from external threats and privacy or the need to safeguard our information from others. These two topics have really come to the forefront in the modern day and age. Because of technology and the internet everything we do now days is online from banking to shopping. And this has made the problems of security and privacy come to the forefront. Because their really is very little privacy online and our security can be easily comprised by criminals looking to steal our identity or to steal our banking information to steal our money.

2. Main Points

2.1. For example in 2010 "1.8 million households had there bank accounts compromised" (Compliance and Safety LLC, 2012). And its not just criminals that want access to our personal information nowadays even governments are in on the act and these governments are not just spying on other governments like the united states which "conducted eavesdropping operations on the German government from a listening post at its embassy" (National Post, 2013) governments have also infiltrated the privacy of everyday citizens with U.S. accused of letting its security agency called the NSA of conducting massive spying operations on its own citizens. As journalist Mike Masnick put it in his article regarding government spying "the NSA now collects everything, whether or not the law allows it" (Masnick, 2012). And all this spying is done in the name of security these governments claim that the growing threat of online crime and global terrorism justify their actions to intercept and access everyone's information to catch the bad guys. But nonetheless this doesn't make any of us feel safer and the problem is only about to get bigger as Peter Diamandis says "3 billion new minds" (Diamandis, 2012) will further come on the web over the coming years and the majority of these people will come from developing countries like china which already don't have a track record of respecting individual rights and freedoms. And might use its power and money to stop anyone that speaks out against them and the same worries prevail in democratic countries too. Its not too far fetched that governments might use their powers to spy on individuals that are not a threat to society but a threat to themselves such as protesters. But at the same time the problems of terrorism are not going away and it would be appropriate for governments to break into the bank accounts of terrorists or cyber criminals and track their activities online, So what's the answer to the security/ privacy dilemma.

3. Conclusion

3.1. In the end I really feel that their has to be a comprise made when it comes to privacy and security, yes the governments should be able to monitor cyber criminals and terrorist online but their is no need for them to carry blanket spying on all its citizens. Their needs to be a middle way so that individuals can feel that their personal privacy is respected but at the same time feel that they are protected from threats like terrorism.

4. References

4.1. Compliance and Safety LLC. (2012, August 20). Online Safety Infographic: You Are Not Safe Online!. Retrieved from http://www.atlantictraining.com/blog/online-safety-infographic-you-are-not-safe-online/

4.2. Diamandis, P. (2012, September 13). Peter Diamandis on Moore's Law and Changing the World. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWcV-eoJqT8

4.3. Masnick, M. (2012, March 19). A Terrifying Look Into The NSA's Ability To Capture And Analyze Pretty Much Every Communication. Retrieved from https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120317/00381118147/terrifying-look-into-nsas-ability-to-capture-analyze-pretty-much-every-communication.shtml

4.4. National Post. (2013, October 27). NSA denies Barack Obama personally authorized wiretap on German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2010. Retrieved from http://news.nationalpost.com/news/nsa-denies-barack-obama-personally-authorized-wiretap-on-german-chancellor-angela-merkel-in-2010

5. Creative Aspect

5.1. Used mindmeister to create a visual presentation for my information.