By the year 2000, a balance was sought between security requirements and a respect for privacy, as well as for individual and collective freedoms. As we progress further into the 21st century, however, security is taking precedence within an increasingly controlled society. This shift is due to advances in innovative technologies and the investments made by commercial companies to drive constant technological progress. Despite the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) within the EU in 2018 or 2020's California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), regulatory bodies do not have the ability to fully manage the consequences presented by emerging technologies. Security and Its Challenges in the 21st Century provides students and researchers with an international legal and geopolitical analysis; it is also intended for those interested in societal development, artificial intelligence, smart cities and quantum cryptology.

"The state, that must eradicate all feelings of insecurity, even potential ones, has been caught in a spiral of exception, suspicion and oppression that may lead to a complete disappearance of liberties." Mireille Delmas Marty, Libertes et surete dans un monde dangereux, 2010 This book will examine the security/freedom duo in space and time with regards to electronic communications and technologies used in social control. It will follow a diachronic path from the relative balance between philosophy and human rights, very dear to Western civilization (at the end of the 20th Century), to the current situation, where there seems to be less freedom in terms of security to the point that some scholars have wondered whether privacy should be redefined in this era. The actors involved (the Western states, digital firms, human rights organizations etc.) have seen their roles impact the legal and political science fields.