Abstract:

The balance between state security and individual liberty is a line the United States has had to walk carefully. Protecting the populace while staying true to the values laid out in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence have become increasingly challenging after September 11th. The development of surveillance technology and a pervasive “internet of things” are changing the dynamic between technology and privacy. Corporations have begun collecting personal data to use as a form of “surveillance capitalism.” This is making it even more difficult for citizens around the word to hold on to the privacy component of their civil liberties. Compared to the authoritarian rule in China, in which privacy of the individual has been secondary to that of the collective good since the instalment of the Chinese Communist Party, stark contrasts in data collection and privacy rules should be clear. However, corporations in the United States are working with the government either inadvertently or directly making their all-encompassing collection of data for corporate profit too similar to that of the Chinese government. This research analyzes the use of information technology by China and the United States to gauge whether the type of political regime these new technologies are being created under makes a difference in terms of the civil rights of its populace. This is done by examining practices of states and corporations in each country and evaluating the impact they have had on each population’s civil liberties.

This thesis is being incorporated into an Anthem Press book entitled: Hacking Digital Ethics (Anthem Ethics of Personal Data Collection).