America is America and even its President Donald Trump cannot change the course of that country radically. In pursuit of keeping the US safe, the personal information of people around the world is being extracted through security flaws in their smartphones, personal computers and smart TVs. Hacking by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Wikileaks cannot be distinguished as ethical or unethical. But there is one difference. The data Wikileaks has will be in the public domain, whereas that of the CIA remains confidential. This is not the first time that the CIA has been called out for breaching the privacy of individuals worldwide. But we see no condemnations, no resolutions, and no protests anywhere. I cannot understand the logic – there is condemnation when hacking is done by individuals and silence when it is done by a country. Massive breach of security on the one hand and mute spectators on the other. The irony is that all these violations are happening in a country that has always stood for liberty, human rights and freedom of expression. If the CIA can breach into the security features of iPhones, WhatsApp or other devices, then Wikileaks can, in turn, access the classified data of CIA, too. As American industrialist Henry Ford rightly pointed out: “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” So, preaching something in public and practicing an entirely different thing in secret is not good for a civilised country like the US. Likewise, America alone cannot keep safe while simultaneously exposing the rest of the world to risk and chaos.
- The reader is an employee relations officer with a multinational company, based in Dubai.
