This text is mentioned in one exam that took place 3 days ago.
Passage:
The debate over the balance between privacy and security continues to
rage. On the one hand, the desire for privacy is nearly universal and
many people regard personal information as personal property to be
divulged only by choice or when required for a greater good. On the
other hand, criminal and terrorist activity on the internet continues
to increase, and national security and public safety are often seen as
legitimate reasons for government to intervene to collect personal
information. The collection, without permission, of personal
information by commercial enterprises for profit-related activities
adds a further layer of complexity.
The question is:
Which of the following best encapsulates the ideas in this passage?
1) what new risks are generated by Big Data and Internet of Things.
2) should our right to privacy be secondary to the need to protect national security.
3) the future of data protection in the EU-political, legal and technical implementation of the right to be forgotten.
4) the current cyber-threat landscape and national/international responses.
I think (4) is the answer, but short-solution that given after exam says (2) is correct option.
Can anyone could describe which of them is better? why?
Best Answer
(2) best encapsulates the ideas of the passage. The topic sentence immediately declares the paragraph's intention — to argue that the "debate over the balance between privacy and security" is an ongoing one. The next three sentences present the two competing interests in the debate — an individual right to privacy and a collective right to safety — with a classic "on the one hand...on the other hand" structure. You're right in that "the current cyber-threat landscape and national/international responses" are discussed heavily (relatively speaking) in the passage:
But threats to public safety and government responses are used by the author to motivate one side of the aforementioned debate, and are not by themselves the key ideas here.
Also, for further reinforcement (and just for fun) — this was the summary of a panel discussion called "Security vs. Privacy" at the IEEE Summit on Internet Governance in 2014.