The 21st century dilemma of security over privacy

Growing concerns about security:

Today’s world must be viewed more critically. As fake news and invasive politics continue to propagate with more speed, many citizens of the world do not know where to turn to for the truth. As such, the potential for people to become disenfranchised with day-to-day life can spill over into other areas which could lead to profound negative actions. We can clearly state that the internet in the 21st century, a tool engineered to connect people all over the world, created to facilitate the flow of information and establish long distance relationships, has not only changed and revolutionized the way the world operates on so many levels, whether it be economical, political, private or public etc., but it has also enabled governments and political regimes to utilize it in the hopes of achieving total surveillance. 

While surveillance officially started in the 1970’s, during the Cold War, the FISC (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court) is a U.S. federal court established to, under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA),oversee requests for surveillance warrants against foreign spies inside the United States by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Moreover, it is only after September 11th that the intelligence agencies greatly expanded the use of the FISA and turned it into what is today’s smoking gun in politics (Cambridge Analytica), international relations (recorded conversations and written statements), consumerism (targeted ads), military strategies (Cyberwarfare, Spyware), etc.

According to GlobalSecurity.org, “In 1994 the House Appropriations defense subcommittee mistakenly published the national intelligence budget of $16.3 billion.” FAS, The Federation of American Scientists, a policy research and advocacy organization seeking to promote national and global security by advancing solutions to important science and technology security problems, published a report with the Intelligence budget allocation since 2005. Before that year the numbers were not made public.

It has been also reported by The Guardian that the Intelligence budget allocation from 2001 to 2002 had doubled after 9/11, but it is not factually proven. We can still notice that the numbers have nearly quadrupled, yet to the naked eye you do not see massive improvements in matters of public security. You would think in hindsight that such vast amounts invested in Intelligence would prevent any future threat on American soil, but there were countless school shootings, the Boston marathon bombings in 2013, and more events seen around the world. 

With the right investigative tactics and multi-billion dollar programs, it should help Intelligence agencies to tackle those types of events. One will have to wait and see.

On one hand, we have an Intelligence budget that allows the monitoring of millions of calls per second, the internet that allows companies to sell your data to other companies, NGOs AND government organizations, etc. As such, this is the information we will never have access to, due to its confidential elements and potentially a quote on quote “matter of national security”.

Therefore, humans have in a manner become a commodity, their information, sold without having any knowledge of it. 

Is privacy still a right we have?

It is truly shocking to know that there is something out there, not human, nor alive or breathing, that knows more about your personal life and you in general, than you yourself. And the information will be stored for as long as the internet exists, in other words forever. 

You can no longer be the master of your own fate as every action you have taken on the internet, being today’s pro-evolutionary tool, determines how the course of your life is going to pan out. 

Your interests, career orientations, hobbies are mostly taken out of the internet. Seeing how other people live, how their everyday life is impacted by what they do, what they dream of being, motivational videos, all of those facets have changed the way society functions in a positive and negative way. 

It can lead to as much creativity as to close-mindedness. 

We can take the example of trend setters and trend followers. Trend setters are the ones who do something out of the ordinary that gets trend followers hooked on recreating whatever the trend setter did. It can range from clothing “fits”to dance moves, etc. That does not mean that trend followers are not creative, but more inspired by other people's ideas rather than their own, which they have not discovered yet. And if they keep following aspirations that are not truly their own, then humans will not personally evolve, but more as a community. If you are wondering what this has to do with privacy, being creative shows that your mind remains unaffected by technology and you still have a mind of your own (you keep your ideas and thoughts private and decide when you want to share them).

Creativity is human, while progress is technological. 

In other words, privacy on social platforms or the internet is not the issue here (a privilege we have lost a long time ago), but rather the privacy of mind. While our lives pivoted in a way where using technology and its devices is paramount to any successful business or lifestyle, the only place technology cannot shine in or monitor anything is our mind.

The only place on earth, besides remote locations, technology free communities and isolated regions, where you can keep things to yourself without having the world know about it, is on a piece of paper.

If you have ideas, thoughts, concepts, preserve them on paper. Create your own value and do not let technology, in the name of “security”, disrupt your creative process. Privacy is probably the most valuable intellectual asset we have today; you just have to use it wisely.