Surveillance and National Security: The Quandary of Balancing Privacy and Public Interest

The advent of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, facial recognition, and biometrics, in conjunction with geopolitical tensions between big powers such as China and the United States, has led to a conflicting relationship between national security and privacy.

- KRITHIKA JAMKHANDI

The interlinked concepts of national security and privacy are inseparable from technological advancement. While national security scholars underscore the dynamic and continually evolving nature of threats, the absence of a universally accepted definition of privacy complicates efforts to safeguard personal data, with both perspectives bearing significant implications for data protection frameworks.

The 21st-century technological revolution presents a paradigm shift in the understanding of national security and the thinning of data protection and individual privacy. The geopolitics and tech war underlying these challenges are intricate.

On the one hand, the United States model of data privacy and national security is deeply rooted in constitutionalism, judicial oversight, and the significance of individual liberty. To contrast, the Chinese model, under the authority of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), puts precedence on national security before individual rights.

Privacy, as a concept, is deeply rooted in an individual's relationship with society across the interplay of cultural, economic, and political contexts. Various legal theorists, scholars, and thought leaders have attempted to define this concept. Fundamentally, privacy at its core comprises the right to solitude, restricted access to the self, and the capacity to regulate the disclosure of personal information.

Additionally, there is the issue of ethics as well as privacy. It is argued that the tools that allow for monitoring activities abuse individual rights, and thus the guidance on these should be applied by legislative authorities on issues which would breach the legal frameworks.

As a preliminary matter, it can be said that the scale of surveillance happening today poses a myriad of problems, from the invasion of privacy to the distortion of state-society relations.