Privacy vs. Security: Smart Dust and Human Extinction

ABSTRACT
This chapter bridges the dilemma created by intrusive surveillance technologies needed to safeguard
people’s security and the potential negative consequences such technologies might have on individual
privacy. It begins by highlighting recent tensions between concerns for privacy and security. Next, it
notes the increasing threat to human life posed by emerging technologies (e.g., genetic engineering and
nanotechnology). The chapter then turns to a potential technological means to mitigate some of this
threat, namely ubiquitous microscopic sensors. One consequence of the deployment of such technology
appears to be an erosion of personal privacy on a scale hitherto unimaginable. It is then argued
that many details of an individual’s private life are actually irrelevant for security purposes and that
it may be possible to develop technology to mask these details in the data gleaned from surveillance
devices. Such a development could meet some, perhaps many, of the concerns about privacy. It is also
argued that if it is possible to use technology to mask personal information, this may actually promote
the goal of security, since it is conjectured that the public is likely to be more willing to accept invasive
technology if it is designed to mask such details. Finally, some applications to society’s current uses of
surveillance technology are drawn. Policy recommendations for surveillance organizations such as the
National Security Agency are briefly canvassed.