Submission + - Report for Britain's Security Vs Their Privacy
eldavojohn writes: "There's a new report (pdf) out from The Royal Academy of Engineering that "identifies likely developments in information technology in the near future, considers their impact on the citizen, and makes recommendations on how to optimize their benefits to society." What's interesting about this report is that people have been lead to believe that security and privacy are related and one must be sacrificed for the other to be improved but the report claims that isn't necessarily true. A notable excerpt from the report: "Trust in the government is essential to democracy. Government use of surveillance and data collection technology, as well as the greater collection and storage of personal data by government, have the potential to decrease the level of democratic trust significantly. The extent of citizens' trust in the government to procure and manage new technologies successfully can be damaged if such projects fail." This report seems to present the possibility of maximizing what trade-offs may exist between the two but with the citizen in mind, not the government. Novel idea — maybe the British government should listen?"