How safe we feel is one of the major factors in dictating how happy we are, for years wars were fought on the other side of the world by trained professionals, now rising extremism and an increasingly bold approach by its perpetrators has brought conflict within the borders of developed countries.

With this in mind, Shell identified Personal Security as one of the key drivers in its 2025 scenarios. The driver revolved around the notion that different people in different parts of the world feel that their security is threatened in a variety of different ways. In Africa the biggest threat may be illness and disease, in parts of South America repressive regimes may compromise a persons sense of security and in the Western World (particularly the US, UK and Spain) the biggest threat is now terrorism.

The impact of the latter issue has provoked an ethical conflict within Western economies; to what extent should privacy be compromised in order to ensure security? In The US the debate is over the introduction of the Patriot Act, expanding the ability of the US government to infringe on its citizens established rights to privacy, whilst the bill passed through both houses easily following the 9/11 attacks, there has been much debate over whether the continued enforcement of the act is an unjustifiable infringement on a persons civil liberties. In the UK the main debate is over the introduction of ID cards containing detailed biometric information (including 10 finger prints, digitised facial and iris scans and details of all previous known residences), linked to the UK National Identity Register. Some semblance of this scheme is already in the process of being introduced as many of the world’s developed countries introduce biometric passports.

The concept of personal security now also extends to the virtual world as identity theft and malicious applications become increasingly common. Phising emails and malicious spam are now common and many people unwittingly handover bank details. The UK government now estimate that Identity Fraud costs the economy £1.7bn per year.

Fact File

• 64% of black people and 53% of Asian people asked expressed concern over the proposed introduction of Identity Cards in the UK.
• A recent survey showed that 20% of people questioned had been the victims of identity theft crime, this number rose to 60% for people aged 16-25 (the survey also showed that this group is the least protective of their personal information).
• Over 55% of all email is classed as ‘junk.’