Why Privacy and Security is not a Zero-Sum Game

Slashdot mentions a write-up in ars technica about why security consultant Ed Giorgio's statement that privacy and security are a zero-sum game is wrong. It is reasoned that, according to Metcalfe's law , the value of a government network to the good guys is the same as for the bad guys.

The author of the article notes that with the government's tendency to gather all of its eggs in one database, we'll end up with neither security nor privacy, unless more attention is paid to privacy -- i.e., a lot of privacy can be traded away for no gain in security and it's not necessary. For details and examples of the issue, see ars technica.