Security versus privacy information technologies: is Big Brother watching us?

Résumé du document

The emergence of Information Systems brought about some problems linked to the notion of privacy. If the computerization of data was generally considered to be a progress, it was sometimes accompanied by fright, or even by fantasies nourished by Big Brother, about possibility for other people or for an instituted power to know everything about an individual. Even if notions of security and privacy are not mutually foreign, in information systems, especially concerning identification technologies, security measures pose problems for the protection of private life.

Extraits

[...] We also assist to the expansion of the new technologies and to the creation of new identification devices. III - PRINCIPAL CHANGES DURING THE LAST 6 YEARS Regulation texts The 11/9 has first of all brought the famous “Patriot which permits the government, by the name of the fight against the terrorism, to pass over the constitution, which is the democracy basis. This Law can then be seen as dangerous especially because it was supposed to be exceptional but it became permanent. [...]

[...] Zorkadis and P.Donos: who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identification number or to one or more factors specific to his physical, physiological and mental identity” In other terms, biometrics can contribute to the identification of a person's physical characteristics using electronic parameters. Moreover, it can provide other information, more “delicate” (racial or medical nature). To find out if a person is identifiable “account should be taken of all the reasonable means likely to be used either by a data controller or by any other person to identify the said person”. (V. Zorkadis and P.Donos). [...]

[...] Other risks and ethical issues In the case where RFID tags are not deactivated they are still able to be scanned and to deliver information. And even if these tags are supposed to be deactivated, what proves us that the information contained is well destroyed? (Unless of being in possession of a reader / scanner to be able to prove In case of the tag would remain active, here is what could happen: We would transport information, unbeknownst to us, permanently, and we would even be classified and listed every time we would pass close to a scanner or a portico RFID! [...]

[...] 58 / 69 Ethical issues The majority of the people who answered this questionnaire are against these technologies: the first reason the mentioned is the brother” feeling. (Figure 10.b) Despite of all the security and safety aspects, all these instruments, put on or in the car, represent an ethical problem. They are going to allow the progressive elimination of the freedom of displacement, a surveillance of all instants. It would also violate the privacy of drivers / 69 CHAPTER CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 60 / 69 CONCLUSION As a conclusion, the study showed that security is at the heart of everyone's preoccupations. [...]

[...] Bowyer, talking about face recognition technology, could become a valuable tool in fighting terrorism. However, it would also be a tool with great potential for enabling government invasion of privacy.” V.Zorkadis and P.Donos‘s paper is “complete” and “balanced”. Effectively, it's a report written from a privacy-protection perspective but it is written in a neutral way, it is based on facts not on opinions and includes the good aspect of biometrics and discusses them. It also provides a section about the “Privacy-friendly biometrics systems”. [...]