A keynote speaker at a conference has criticized U.S. secretary of homeland security Michael Chertoff's comments that privacy is not sacrificed by anti-terrorism security measures.
Chertoff spoke at the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners in Montreal Wednesday and said that measures to create secure ID and to screen people enter the United States will improve privacy.
"I want to reject the implicit zero-sum premise that privacy must be traded for security," Chertoff said at the conference.
But security expert Bruce Schneier did not agree with Chertoff's comments.
/>"Privacy is part of security," Schneier told CTV's Canada AM. "We don't give up privacy to get security. And there's a lot of talk about that after 9/11 for terrorism -- that we must give up privacy in the name of security. But we know that's ridiculous."
Chertoff said that the collection of a small amount of personal data on the 80 million people traveling into the United States had "proven, concrete value."
But Schneier said that door locks or burglar alarms are examples of security measures that have no effects on privacy.
"I think Chertoff is trying to mollify people who really weren't buying it," said Schneier. "We know that our privacy gives us security. If our data becomes public, we don't feel safer, we feel more vulnerable."
Chertoff's comments were met with skepticism by many attending the conference.
Demands by the United States for countries such as Canada to produce passenger lists, which are almost impossible to assemble in the U.S., are unreasonable according to some critics in Montreal.
"I don't know whether to laugh at the folly of our efforts, or to cry at how we've treated our best friends,'' said Barry Steinhardt, director of technology at the American Civil Liberties Union.
Schneier praised Canadian privacy laws and commissioners but said Canadians should be concerned about their data flowing into the United States.
"What Canadians really should worry about is their data going into the U.S.," Schneier said. "If a Canadian has a Google email account, for example, Canadian laws don't apply when that data crosses the border."
With files from The Associated Press
