Certain people prioritize National security over privacy to ensure the safety of the country. But, privacy is equally needed to respect lives of individuals. Though, it may seem that privacy and national security go hand in hand, but it is not always true. Security should always exist for a reason: to ensure that people live at ease, and not fear about threats that the country collects at every minute of the day. Hence, National Security is more important than privacy.
National security implies protection of the state and citizens against pressures from any economic crisis, difficulties faced over political matters or diplomacy. It is required to regulate, and systematize the state judiciously. According to sources, the economy was in a bad shape four years ago, and the unemployment rate was down to 8.1 per cent. Hence, to ensure stability of the economy, National Security is important.
Secondly, National Security is responsible for protection against terrorism and ensures cyber security. Terrorism exists in the form of biological, chemical, nuclear or any other explosive weapons. With the increase in technology, the National Security utilizes them to detect any explosive materials, weapons and protects cyber network from attacks. Also, the National Security is responsible to ensure the health of the nation. For the purpose of safety, the Biological Security conducts a series of lab experiments to detect any current or future biological threats. Chemical Security is equally important as some chemical substances may be used as weapons to induce threats, and hence, it may cause significant amount of deaths and injuries. Nuclear Terrorism is considered as an extreme threat in terms of global security. Thus, National Security certifies that care is taken by performing lab experiments over these nuclear substances to prevent injury of citizens.
Cyber Security is the most challenging task that the country is not prepared to surface well. In the year 2013, about 15 per cent of High School students have been cyber bullied. To reduce these circumstances, cyber security specialists have taken the responsibility to guarantee that financial threats, virus, hacking and unknown text messages are minimized. These factors are taken care by those technologies (“Technology”) such as Socrates, Dynamic Flow isolation and REDUCE. Socrates is used for high analysis to check for any cyber threats. Similarly, Dynamic Flow Isolation consists of Intrusion Detective Systems which provides the status of network flow. REDUCE is another advanced software which performs similar function as that of Dynamic Flow Isolation but provides a more accurate information of network flow.
While National security is considered the most important aspect for safety of the nation, privacy is vital as well. Privacy means freedom from intrusion or from interference. Most new technologies often enhance and decrease privacy. These factors depend on how it is utilized or by whom it is utilized. Hence, respecting a person’s privacy implies acknowledging his/her freedom. The desire of privacy comes into existence as long as there is a prominent expression for privacy. For instance, a conversation between two persons is considered private as long as they have expressed their will for privacy.
The advanced technologies have aided at increasing the level of privacy. Cryptography is one such device. Also called as “secret writing”, it is used to encode a given data so that only a specific person, who has the knowledge of cryptography, is able to understand. This ensures safety of financial data, health information and other aspects. Also, improved network security, starts with authentication, which consists of username and password to make sure only that particular person is able to access data.
While technology supports privacy, it also decreases privacy as well. Improved technologies are used to store and manipulate information. For instance, if a person wants to know the marital status and family history of another person, then it is easily done with the help of databases. Database (“Technology”) is used to store information such as credit card numbers, family histories, account number etc. The main concern is the level of security of information. It implies how the sources are gathered, to whom it is sent, and how much reliable one could be over this software.
In conclusion, National Security is given more importance than privacy as one expects the nation to be safe. The pressure of handling National Security is higher than privacy. With the increase in terrorism attacks and cyber-attacks, the Government must take stringent measures to ensure safety. Without their regulations, citizens would be in great danger. If there were no regulations by the Government, and privacy is considered important, then people would be selfish about themselves and as a result, there will be lack of unity.