David Lacey has written a good article in Computer Week on this subject. He literally talks about how difficult it is to balance security with privacy because they are conflicting. He connects this with PRISM. I have made some posts on this in June.
My take on this is that, sure governments need to survey in the name of national security. However, they owe it to their citizens to inform them that this is happening! i.e. be transparent. In my experience if governments, or organizations for that matter, are not transparent in their operations, it only takes some ‘incident’ that practices that have been kept secret will surface, hence scandal/cover-up.
We are today a socially, networked, i.e. connected world right down to every individual who happens to be online. And thus presents an intimate link between transparency, trust and reputation. I wonder when our governments and organizations will get this?