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Security vs. Privacy Trade-Off Considered Harmful

Notes of 7 January 2014

In preparation for a Panel on 'Security and Privacy: Beyond the Trade-Off Model', at CDPD in Brussels on 23 January 2014

Roger Clarke **

© Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 2014

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

The 'security vs. privacy' rhetoric projects the notion that 'you can have security or privacy - choose one'. This is value-loaded polemic that has been foisted on civil society by national security extremists. So civil society should reject it.

An appropriate model distinguishes a number of different scope definitions for security discussions. The scope is defined in terms of:

• the asset(s) whose security is to be safeguarded
• the stakeholders whose perspectives are to be represented

I've given presentations in Copenhagen (2012) and Oxford (2013) on the topic, the second entitled 'Whose Security? The Politics of Alternative Scope Definitions'. The analysis is also outlined in a short piece about the process to produce a revised version of the OECD's Security Guidelines (2013b).

Adopting this approach, the argument can be mounted that:

1. there are tensions among the alternative scope definitions
2. all stakeholders' interests need to be represented
3. no single alternative scope definition must be permitted to dominate
4. a rational process is needed to achieve a suitable outcome, e.g.:
   • look for win-win-win solutions
   • look for Pareto-optimal solutions - i.e. at least one wins and none loses
   • where you can't find them, design to mitigate harm
5. a rational process has a set of characteristics. See APF (2013)

I've seen little in the literature that addresses this argument.

Fortunately, that is changing, because this Panel session comprises presentations from several research projects that are examining various aspects of the debate, through multiple case studies.

References

APF (2013) 'Meta-Principles for Privacy Protection', Australian Privacy Foundation, April 2013, at http://www.privacy.org.au/Papers/PS-MetaP.html

Clarke R. (2012) 'Security, for Society: A View from the End of the World' Presentation to the Danish Council for Greater IT-Security and the Danish Society of Engineers (IDA), Copenhagen, 25 June 2012, Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/SforS-120625.html

Clarke R. (2013a) 'Whose Security? The Politics of Alternative Scope Definitions' Presentation to the Oxford Cyber Security Centre, on 30 January 2013, Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/WS-1301.html

Clarke R. (2013b) 'Challenges Facing the OECD's Revised Security Guidelines' Draft for the Internet Technical Advisory Newsletter, Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, at http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/OECDS-1311.html

Author Affiliations

Roger Clarke is Principal of Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, Canberra. He is also a Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre at the University of N.S.W., and a Visiting Professor in the Research School of Computer Science at the Australian National University. He has been on the Board of of the world's longest-serving privacy advocacy body, the Australian Privacy Foundation, since its foundation in 1987, including 7 years as Chair. He has been a member of the Privacy International Advisory Board since its inception in 2000. He is also Secretary of the Internet Society of Australia (ISOC-AU).

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Created: 7 January 2014 - Last Amended: 7 January 2014 by Roger Clarke - Site Last Verified: 15 February 2009
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