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The Contested Semantics of 'Security'
and the Curious Case of PIAs
applied to National Security Initiatives

Abstract of 1 August 2016

For presentation to the
Peace Research Institute Oslo, 29 August 2016

Roger Clarke **

© Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 2016

This document is at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/PIANS.html

The accompanying slide-set is at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/PIANS.pdf

Here are the PRIO home-page and PRIO's 6-page report on the presentation, plus a mirror of the report

Abstract

Conversations about security generally involve people talking at cross-purposes. The reason for this is that the meaning of the term 'security' is relative to the particular values that particular stakeholders perceive in particular assets, and the particular harm that those values might come to. Yet people seldom take the trouble to clarify which stakeholders, assets, values and harm they are talking about, even to themselves, let alone to other people.

National security initiatives inherently involve clashes among alternative scope definitions. At the very heart of the matter is the conflict involved in constraining human rights in order to protect them. Appropriate decision-making about national security initiatives is therefore entirely dependent on the application of an effective evaluation process.

Results are presented of a survey of Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) undertaken in respect of Australian Government national security initiatives. Despite the enormous intrusiveness of these initiatives into the rights of everyone in Australia, and the (to date) rare incidence of their use, the evaluation processes are shown to have been uniformly and seriously inadequate.

Both the legislature and the executive have failed their obligations to Australian society. They continue to blindly accept a narrow and heavily biassed conception of security, and fail to impose either pre or post controls on the club of national security agencies.

Author Affiliations

Roger Clarke is Principal of Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, Canberra. He is also a Visiting Professor in Cyberspace Law & Policy at the University of N.S.W., and a Visiting Professor in the Computer Science at the Australian National University.

The content and infrastructure for these community service pages are provided by Roger Clarke through his consultancy company, Xamax. From the site's beginnings in August 1994 until February 2009, the infrastructure was provided by the Australian National University. During that time, the site accumulated close to 30 million hits. It passed 65 million in early 2021. Sponsored by the Gallery, Bunhybee Grasslands, the extended Clarke Family, Knights of the Spatchcock and their drummer

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Created: 1 August 2016 - Last Amended: 1 August 2016 by Roger Clarke - Site Last Verified: 15 February 2009
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