Privacy and security: Assessing database derivative activities

In recent years, many have grown accustomed to the ritual of showing identification at an airport gate, at the door of a government building, & at other places. Most of us, at least occasionally, have worried about the privacy consequences or wondered whether showing identification contributes in a meaningful way to security. However, an individual who shares that thought in the wrong place & the wrong time is more likely to be treated as a security threat rather than a rightful participant in a public policy debate. In the pages of a journal, however, it is safe & appropriate to ask how much security should we have, & to consider the consequences of the options in terms of cost, inconvenience, effectiveness, privacy, & other measures. This essay focuses on the privacy dimension to security. The question here is not how much security or privacy should we select, but how to frame the right questions for exploring the tradeoffs between security & privacy. [Copyright 2004 Elsevier Inc.]