Privacy vs. Security in National Emergencies

Emergence of a shared global risks rhetoric over the past few years has paralleled growth in some countries of political efforts to achieve national security. These efforts are characterized by the introduction and implementation of unprecedented measures to counter growing threats and to attempt to eliminate all identifiable potential human- and natural-caused risks and hazards. As every risk has the intrinsic potential to severely affect, not just individuals, but a country's infrastructure, the accession of socially constructed security measures has been justified to the public as an absolute necessity to sustain the uninterrupted order of civil society. However, some citizens and lobbying groups have perceived the extent of the measures as a substantial move towards blanket and intrusive covert/overt policing practices on our lives, leading down the path towards a nationwide surveillance society. © 2012 IEEE.