Although it is in the background of the war on terror, the issues of protection of personal privacy and civil liberties remain a top concern for many people.
A panel of experts discussed at the Sanford Institute of Public Policy Monday the challenges governments face in their attempt to protect privacy. The event, titled "Protecting National Security and Privacy: Approaches of New Administrations in the U.S. and Europe," drew approximately 30 people.
Representatives from the U.S. Departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security, the European Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the private sector and academia debated the role of data protection in law enforcement.
"The point is not to balance privacy and security," said David Schanzer, visiting associate professor of public policy and director of the Triangle Center for Terrorism and Homeland Security. "The goal is figuring out how to protect privacy while allowing government to carry out its duties."
The panel evaluated a variety of issues, including the role of new technologies in privacy protections and the nature of current data protection laws.
The zone of privacy for personal information and the extent to which government respects it is one of the most important relationships between a government and its people, Schanzer said. That relationship, however, has been strained by the war on terror.
Increased national security activity is forcing government agencies to collect lots of information for preventative purposes-representing a departure from the normal activities of law enforcement agencies.
"Law enforcement is dealing with a violation after the fact-national security is pre-emptive," said Kenneth Mortensen, chief privacy and civil liberties officer for the U.S. Department of Justice. "Because of the severity of threats, we often have to act before we can establish cause."
The changing needs of government agencies have caused the government to take a new look at legislation and norms that constrain data collection, such as the Privacy Act of 1974.
"It cannot be the case that in a security context the same rules apply as in other contexts," said George Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a non-government organization that strives to support constitutional liberties and democratic values in the digital age. "These rules are flexible-they have to be flexible."
The experts also addressed how perceptions of privacy change over time and across borders.
"Privacy is a cultural norm and value that changes through time," said Daniel Caprio, president and CEO of D.C. Strategies, a political and business consulting firm.
Echoing Caprio, Mortensen said notions of privacy have been greatly affected by technology.
"We have new technology whose bounds we are not completely aware of," he said, noting that there was a time when cameras were seen as the biggest threat to personal privacy.
Moreover, the international nature of terrorism has involved many cultural perceptions of privacy, which are sometimes at odds.
European notions of privacy differ in many ways from American notions, said Cecilia Verkleij, head of sector for the European Commission's Directorate-General for Justice, Freedom and Security.
The United States and the European Union often exchange personal information for law enforcement purposes. Consequently, there have been rounds of negotiations to make data collection and protection laws more compatible.
The issue of privacy and national security has become increasingly important as administrations in the United States as well as the European Union have recently changed.
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