3. Security, Privacy and Oversight

This chapter looks at conceptual and practical issues concerning ‘privacy’ and ‘security’ as they affect the oversight of security and intelligence services. It considers these issues in the light of three recent seminal reports in the UK and one in the US. Taking a critical view of the conventional wisdom surrounding the concepts of ‘privacy’ and ‘security’ and of the way the values they represent are thought to be reconcilable, this contribution argues that a better grasp of the relationship between these two areas in theory and practice is an important component of satisfactory oversight of intelligence activities. In addition, the extent to which overseers and other policy actors can keep abreast of technological developments is identified as a problem for the effectiveness of legislation and oversight, requiring changes to existing procedures