After the 9/11 attacks, a debate arose on the issue of privacy of the citizens and protecting the lives of the citizens. Security is very proactive and intrusive since terror investigative measures allow the government to obtain and analyze data on individuals as well as their daily activities ( Pardo & Siemens, 2014) . Some people believe that it is against the constitution to invade someone’s privacy in providing security ( Amoore, 2014) . The opponents argue that security should always take precedence to ensure the safety of a nation. The question this paper asks is: Must privacy and national security clash?
The Congress formed the Department of Homeland Security that has unprecedented powers to obtain, correlate and act upon information on individuals. The Government believes that this excess level of monitoring is important in obtaining crucial intelligence to prevent attacks. Activist for Privacy argues that such deep mining is unjustified and undermines the civil liberties provided in the constitution ( Amoore, 2014) .
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Security is found in all levels. Certain organizations have incorporated security techniques that protect digitally stored information ( Pardo & Siemens, 2014) . The government mandate protection of personal information in certain institutions like financial and health care institutions. In other cases, the government violates clauses in the constitution and demand for access to personal information of individuals in the name of providing national security.
Lastly, despite the negative criticism by the pro-privacy activists, when the government talks about security, they are always talking about giving protection to the public from both domestic and foreign threats ( Amoore, 2014) . There are no cases in which the government has obtained such information so as to make profits. It is always to stop bad people and bad things from happening. However, when such access is granted, some people within the system might abuse the powers for their gains ( Amoore, 2014) . As such it is important for the two opposing sides to collaborate and compromise between security and privacy. Standards should be developed, in the constitution, that give guidelines on cases where personal information can be accessed, who should access them, the procedure and how the information should be handled ( Pardo & Siemens, 2014) .
Reference
Amoore, L. (2014). Security and the claim to privacy. International Political Sociology , 8 (1), 108-112.
Pardo, A., & Siemens, G. (2014). Ethical and privacy principles for learning analytics. British Journal of Educational Technology , 45 (3), 438-450.
