Impact of technology on security and privacy
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Technology has always had the power to fundamentally transform any society’s way of life. As a small and open nation, Singapore is naturally integrated into the modern global landscape. With today’s rapid developments in information, communication and surveillance technologies, our country is facing both privacy and security issues both at the personal and national level.
We do agree that the technology has a great impact on both privacy and security in Singapore. Singaporeans are not immune to the spread of private information that troubles all modern technologically-driven societies via social networking sites and the Internet. The ability to control information about the self is linked to the dignity and self-respect of the individual. A generally open attitude to sharing information can also compromise privacy as other people have nearly unlimited flexibility to upload information or photos of ourselves which we might not want to be shared. The most serious illustration of this issue is cases of personal sex videos being indiscriminately upload online that have greatly ruined the dignity and privacy of unfortunate individuals. An example of this happening in Singapore was when a student lost her mobile phone and consequently suffered intimate footage of her being uploaded on the Internet. “Tammy NYP” had become the most searched keyword for two weeks in 2006. Being modernised and hence increasingly wired, every Singaporean inevitably experiences dissemination of their personal lives into public spheres.
Compromising our privacy can indirectly lead to compromises on our security. Singapore has an entire new generation of technologically savvy youth who extensively use the Internet but lack a discerning sense of the security risks that the Internet could pose for them. The sense of liberalism and complacency that today’s Singaporean youth are nurturing will determine the attitudes they are adapted to as adults. What starts off as an abuse of private, personal information without consent can easily heighten into case of fraud if the young are not better educated in these ways. Popularly known as phishing now, all manner of people in Singapore are already receiving emails from presumably reputation or trustworthy sources asking for a release of bank account numbers or passwords (http://www.lawtechpartners.com/PandPDocs/FLGPSS/3%20Dangerous%20Curves%20Ahead_%20The%20Crossroad%20of%20Ethics%20and%20Technology.pdf). The IDA has reported that in the span of 5 years, the number of successful scam cases has risen, particularly among youth and the elderly. The continued impact of technology on the security of our personal wealth is indeed significant.
On the other hand, technology has not always introduced adverse effects to our society and in some cases has in fact increased our ability to expand security in the areas that we have traditionally struggled with. On top of our traditional use of technology to protect our borders, we have also had a need to combat new terrorist threats, especially in the case of dealing with Jemaah Islamiyah. As the face of terrorism is changing and with new threats and technology, Singapore need to adapt a multi-pronged respond, multi-dimensional, multi-national and multi-agency response to fight this kind of new terrorism (http://www.pvtr.org/pdf/Ideology%20Response/Coping%20with%20threat%20of%20JI%20-%20The%20Singapore%20Experience.pdf ).The threats of terrorism and other criminal acts could severely damage our reputation as a stable and safe place to live and invest in. Behaviour-analysing surveillance cameras, biometric profiling and even spy satellites have allowed us to combat terrorism both in Singapore and on a global scale (http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/privacy/bigger_weaker.pdf).
We do agree that the technology has a great impact on both privacy and security in Singapore. Singaporeans are not immune to the spread of private information that troubles all modern technologically-driven societies via social networking sites and the Internet. The ability to control information about the self is linked to the dignity and self-respect of the individual. A generally open attitude to sharing information can also compromise privacy as other people have nearly unlimited flexibility to upload information or photos of ourselves which we might not want to be shared. The most serious illustration of this issue is cases of personal sex videos being indiscriminately upload online that have greatly ruined the dignity and privacy of unfortunate individuals. An example of this happening in Singapore was when a student lost her mobile phone and consequently suffered intimate footage of her being uploaded on the Internet. “Tammy NYP” had become the most searched keyword for two weeks in 2006. Being modernised and hence increasingly wired, every Singaporean inevitably experiences dissemination of their personal lives into public spheres.
Compromising our privacy can indirectly lead to compromises on our security. Singapore has an entire new generation of technologically savvy youth who extensively use the Internet but lack a discerning sense of the security risks that the Internet could pose for them. The sense of liberalism and complacency that today’s Singaporean youth are nurturing will determine the attitudes they are adapted to as adults. What starts off as an abuse of private, personal information without consent can easily heighten into case of fraud if the young are not better educated in these ways. Popularly known as phishing now, all manner of people in Singapore are already receiving emails from presumably reputation or trustworthy sources asking for a release of bank account numbers or passwords (http://www.lawtechpartners.com/PandPDocs/FLGPSS/3%20Dangerous%20Curves%20Ahead_%20The%20Crossroad%20of%20Ethics%20and%20Technology.pdf). The IDA has reported that in the span of 5 years, the number of successful scam cases has risen, particularly among youth and the elderly. The continued impact of technology on the security of our personal wealth is indeed significant.
On the other hand, technology has not always introduced adverse effects to our society and in some cases has in fact increased our ability to expand security in the areas that we have traditionally struggled with. On top of our traditional use of technology to protect our borders, we have also had a need to combat new terrorist threats, especially in the case of dealing with Jemaah Islamiyah. As the face of terrorism is changing and with new threats and technology, Singapore need to adapt a multi-pronged respond, multi-dimensional, multi-national and multi-agency response to fight this kind of new terrorism (http://www.pvtr.org/pdf/Ideology%20Response/Coping%20with%20threat%20of%20JI%20-%20The%20Singapore%20Experience.pdf ).The threats of terrorism and other criminal acts could severely damage our reputation as a stable and safe place to live and invest in. Behaviour-analysing surveillance cameras, biometric profiling and even spy satellites have allowed us to combat terrorism both in Singapore and on a global scale (http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/privacy/bigger_weaker.pdf).
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