Comptes Rendus
no. 7
The new ethical trilemma: Security, privacy and transparency
Jean-Gabriel Ganascia1
1 LIP6, University Pierre et Marie Curie, Sorbonne Universités, cc 169, 4, place Jussieu, 75252 Paris cedex 05, France
Comptes Rendus. Physique, Volume 12 (2011) no. 7, pp. 684-692.

Le développement des nano-technologies soulève de nombreuses questions dʼordre éthique et sociétal. Parmi elles, celles qui portent sur la protection de la vie privée ont fait lʼobjet de nombreux débats. Certains pensent que les technologies sont neutres et quʼelles ne changent pas fondamentalement les problèmes qui sont dʼordre politique, tandis que dʼautres prétendent que les développements techniques contemporains les amplifient considérablement. Il existe même des personnes qui affirment que la protection de la vie privée devient obsolette. Cet article discute ces différentes positions en faisant référence à lʼarchitecture classique du Panopticon qui a été conçue pour faciliter la surveillance et qui se caractérise comme un totale privation de vie privée. Il envisage les évolutions possibles du Panopticon dues au développement des nanotechnologies. Il montre que lʼinfluence des nanotechnologies sur tout ce qui concerne la vie privée ne peut être dissociée de celle des ordinateurs et des biotechnologies, cʼest-à-dire de ce que lʼon a coutume de désigner comme la convergence NBIC. Enfin, cet article conclut sur le nouveau compromis qui doit être trouvé entre les trois exigences contradictoires que sont la sécurité, la transparence et la protection de la vie privée.

Numerous ethical and societal issues are related to the development of nanotechnology. Among them, the risk for privacy has long been discussed. Some people say that technology is neutral and that it does not really change the nature of problems, which are mainly political, while others state that its contemporary developments considerably amplify them; there are even persons who assert that it will make privacy protection obsolete. This article discusses those different positions by making reference to the classical Panopticon that is an architecture for surveillance, which characterizes the total absence of privacy. It envisages the possible evolutions of the Panopticon due to the development of nanotechnologies. It shows that the influence of nanotechnology on privacy concerns cannot be dissociated from the influence of computers and biotechnologies, i.e. from what is currently called the NBIC convergence. Lastly, it concludes on the new ethical trade-off that has to be made between three contradictory requirements that are security, transparency and privacy.

Publié le :
DOI : 10.1016/j.crhy.2011.07.002
Keywords: Nano-Panopticon, Nanotechnology, Panopticon, Privacy, Sousveillance, Surveillance
Mots clés : Nano-Panopticon, Nanotechnologies, Panopticon, Vie privée, Sousveillance, Surveillance
Jean-Gabriel Ganascia 1

1 LIP6, University Pierre et Marie Curie, Sorbonne Universités, cc 169, 4, place Jussieu, 75252 Paris cedex 05, France 
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Jean-Gabriel Ganascia. The new ethical trilemma: Security, privacy and transparency. Comptes Rendus. Physique, Volume 12 (2011) no. 7, pp. 684-692. doi : 10.1016/j.crhy.2011.07.002. https://comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/physique/articles/10.1016/j.crhy.2011.07.002/

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