The panoptic state: Privacy, surveillance and the balance of risk

Abstract

Advances in technology and changes in the way that we communicate and store information have steadily increased the vulnerability of informational privacy. This vulnerability is compounded by a combination of increased concerns about citizen security and developments in e-government designed to improve state services and reform the public sector. Starting from a statement of principle of the right to informational privacy, recent technological developments are surveyed, the dangers they pose to privacy and existing protections are discussed. The question of risk in this context is then explored and, resulting from this, a number of mechanisms for achieving a better balance between the right to individual privacy and the need for communal security in an information society are proposed.