IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 29

sections from the perspective of a private citizen, not
that of government or law enforcement. By using this
quadrant framing instead of a simple binary operation, stakeholders can pursue Quadrant IV solutions
that achieve both security and privacy objectives.

Quadrant Two: Show Me Your Papers
(Accomplishes Security Objectives
While Degrading Privacy)
Quadrant Two represents implementations that improve
security while degrading privacy; for example, initiatives to create Internet driver's licenses. These credentials would require verification of a user's identity in
the physical world before performing certain activities
online. Other examples include the long-term retention
of Internet users' online activities by ISPs and searches
of electronic devices at national borders. While meeting
security objectives, we should strive to do better than
Quadrant Two solutions.
Quadrant Three: I Know My Rights
(Accomplishes Privacy Objectives
While Reducing Security)
Security solutions are unlikely to fall into Quadrant Three by design, as those who develop security
systems do not seek to make security worse while
improving privacy. Nonetheless, technical or policy countermeasures, such as those discussed at the
2013 IEEE International Symposium on Technology
and Society [6] sometimes shift security solutions
toward or into Quadrant Three. For example, consider the u.S. v. Jones decision by the u.S. Supreme
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SuMMEr 2014

Invasive

Privacy

Quadrant One: Security Theater (Accomplishes
Neither Security nor Privacy Objectives)
The worst implementations degrade privacy without
enhancing security. Bruce Schneier uses the term security theater, where deliberately visible security measures have only a minimal effect on actual security [3].
However, we consider Quadrant One to include any
security measures that degrade privacy, while offering
no real gain in security, whether visible or not. Consider
easily-bypassed security measures, such as guards who
wave pizza deliverymen through checkpoints and password recovery systems based on easily guessable personal information. Quadrant One solutions occur when
well-intentioned, but ill-informed managers implement
solutions that appear to be plausible.
remediation of these systems is often problematic.
Bureaucracies can be slow to respond to criticism
and often citizens are not empowered to confront bad
policies. For example, the u.S. Transportation Security Agency (TSA), has been under intense pressure
to justify the logic behind its actions [4], [5]. Those
affected must understand the necessity for and true
benefit of security measures.

Detrimental

Security
Ineffective

Effective

Quadrant I
Accomplishes
neither security
or privacy
objectives.

Quadrant II
Accomplishes
security objectives
while reducing
privacy.

Quadrant III
Accomplishes
privacy
objectives
while reducing
security.

Quadrant IV
Accomplishes
both security
and privacy
objectives.

Neutral

Beneficial

Fig. 1. The effectiveness of a security measure is plotted
against its impact on privacy. Optimal solutions improve
both security and privacy (Quadrant IV). The gray region
indicates zones of potentially reasonable tradeoffs.

Court which found that the government's use of a GPS
tracking device to follow a vehicle's movements constituted a search under the Fourth Amendment. This
decision constrains law enforcement's future use of
such tracking techniques. Quadrant Three solutions
improve privacy, but have negative security impacts.
Quadrant Four: Win-Win Privacy
and Security (Accomplishes both
Security and Privacy Objectives)
Optimal solutions improve both security and privacy.
These win-win solutions will be elusive, but we argue
that they must be aggressively pursued. Consider Secure
Sockets Layer (SSL), which makes most consumer
financial activities possible on the Internet by reducing exposure of sensitive data in transit. Solutions in
Quadrant Four may require some compromises, for
example an employer who places an SSL proxy between
employee machines and the Internet for intrusion detection purposes, but the end result improves security and
privacy. Other potential Quadrant Four solutions, such
as full disk encryption, offer privacy and security gains
in some contexts, but must be carefully analyzed along
other vectors not indicated in Fig. 1, such as cost, speed,
and usability to ensure their long-term viability.
The design of Quadrant Four solutions begins with
proper communication, planning, and education. We
can learn much by studying insights from the privacy by design community [7]. Organizations should
facilitate dialog among security solution developers,
end users, and experts in privacy and civil liberties as
early in the design process as possible. It is important
to educate government and corporate officials on the
importance of privacy and civil liberties and to transparently inform key privacy advocates of underlying
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014