Are the Benefits from AI in Defence and Security Worth the Potential Loss of Personal Privacy?
Shelby Johnston, Online Staff Writer
March 31, 2021
Technology has been consistently and rapidly expanding for the last several decades. As a result, so has the creation and maintenance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). However, these advancements have created significant risks to personal privacy, begging the question: are the benefits from AI in defence and Security worth the risk to personal privacy? Public, commercial and private sectors each have their reasoning, collection methods, and uses for AI. One reason for deploying AI in various settings is the creation of databases, combining an abundance of incredibly personal information and making it readily accessible to a variety of sectors including government, military, or commercial. Advancements in and uses for AI are expanding so quickly that Canadian and American privacy laws are struggling to keep up, placing the privacy of citizens at risk.
In 2018, The United States Congressional Research Service released a report titled Artificial Intelligence and National Security which analyzed how the United States Government is using AI in relation to defence. The report highlights that the most beneficial use for AI in national security is for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The report notes that the creation and use of large databases allows analysts to make more efficient decisions, rather than sifting through data sets.
The use of AI for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance has proven effective in analyzing the activities of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and providing next steps for the US military. Arizona State University researchers published a paper entitled Mining for Causal Relationships: A Data-Driven Study of the Islamic State. A dataset of 2,200 incidents of military activity surrounding ISIS in both Iraq and Syria was analyzed. Using AI technology, they found a causal relationship that link, “ISIS vehicle-Bourne improvised explosive device (VBIED) activity in Syria with military operations in Iraq, coalition airstrikes, and ISIS IED activity, as well as rules that may serve as indicators of spikes in indirect fire, suicide attacks and arrests." This information and the analytics behind it can be used by government agencies and militaries to predict and understand enemy tactics.
While the US government views advances in AI as important to military operations, how data is collected for military, government, and commercial databases has been a topic of controversy and intense discussion in an attempt to balance public data collection with personal privacy. AI technologies have become increasingly popular in everyday life, from computer keystroke tracking and the use of cookies to the use of facial recognition software as a phone password. The implementation of AI has created new security and privacy challenges, making it imperative that users read the fine print of user agreements before signing them.
Unfortunately, due to current privacy laws, in some parts of the world, the disclaimer for this activity is buried hundreds of pages deep in a user agreement. Likely for a website or app where you would least expect. Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania published an article outlining how unaware consumers are in regards to how much data is collected from them each day. For example, websites like PayPal disclose a significant amount of consumer data to third parties. PayPal shares data such as “name, address, phone number, date of birth, IP address, bank account information and recent purchases with hundreds of entities around the world.” Many consumers assume a veil of privacy with companies who hold extremely personal and valuable information, yet many of these companies sell or use consumer data in various ways, approved by the customer through the rarely read terms and agreements. The internet makes it easy for companies to obtain and sell people's data, and it can end up in mass databases to be accessed by not only commercial businesses for marketing and advertising but also by military and law enforcement agencies for surveillance.
Clearview AI is an American technology company that collects images from the internet and compiles a database for users to publically search to find matches. Clearview AI is known for collecting personal information and photographs without consent for its database, which is mainly searched by law enforcement, government agencies and other commercial entities. Companies like Clearview AI make it easy for law enforcement and government agencies to conduct mass surveillance on citizens. In the United States agencies like the NSA have historically conducted mass surveillance on citizens, while other agencies like the FBI and CIA reaped the benefits of its surveillance tactics. However, with advances in AI technology and emerging tech companies these government agencies no longer need to conduct all the work on their own, they simply need to access databases where the data has been collected for them.
In 2011 the United States and Canada passed an agreement titled the “Beyond the Border Security Agreement” passed through Canadian Parliament as part of Bill C-21. The agreement creates a mutual sharing of information obtained during border-crossing between U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Canada Border Services Agency. The information shared between the two agencies includes; travel documents, biographic data and any other information that can be obtained through a routine border crossing including through a search or inspection. This agreement provides each country’s government with an abundance of personal information each time a person crosses the border. This controversial agreement means that in order for anyone to cross the border on either side they must agree to rescind any personal privacy to the other country’s government. These governments presumably store this information in databases to be accessed for security and surveillance purposes as needed, and information can be easily aggregated and searched using AI. Thus, whether people realize they are giving up their personal privacy or not, increasing AI technology significantly decreases a person's right to personal privacy.
Increasing AI technology presents many benefits especially to the defence and security sector, however, without explicit privacy laws in place to protect personal privacy there are legal and ethical implications to how data is acquired. There needs to be a fair balance between data collected and used by the defence and security sector and a right to personal privacy. Personal privacy should not be breached without consent or an explicit disclaimer by third parties and compiled into databases that can be accessed by government agencies. AI may be imperative to the future of defence and security studies; however, it should not be done at the expense of personal privacy.