Privacy SIG: A Delicate Balance: When Security and Privacy Want Opposite Things

Usually, privacy and information security professionals have a shared mission to protect information. But what happens when their approaches and objectives conflict with each other or make it impossible for them to coexist within a specific use case? From the physical world to the technology realm, there has long been give-and-take necessary to find the right balance between privacy and security in protecting and defending. As privacy (or its more appropriate term, data protection) is about respecting the person, and their decisions around data use and depends heavily on security technologies to be effective, the importance of collaborating continues to increase but remains challenging. We will cover the history of these two worlds' relationship across the physical and technical domains. By reviewing cases, including the recent news that Apple will soon check for CSAM data on users' devices, we will discern how to discuss, understand and find the balance between security and privacy for different use cases, risk postures and constituencies.