‘Information is power’, several iterations of the aforementioned quote exist each carrying slightly different meanings from one another but what they all carry in common is the emphasis that “Information itself is power'”. Information or knowledge, can be key to a nation’s advancement or the piece that leads to its tragic downfall. In modern times, many experts and prolifics believe that the World War 3 when fought, the most desired asset shall be information. As such under the guise of internal relations and global communication technology, an unprecedented race amongst global powers to spread their webs of communication networks has started and the goal is to acquire other nations’ information be it top secret or something about the common citizens’ daily life.

Now to the common man, the entire concept may seem nothing more than jargon but, if each person was to look at their smartphones right now, and check the origin company of their top 5 used apps then most likely the country of origin would be either America or China. Matter of course, the smartphone itself would most definitely either be American or Chinese and not of their native country. That’s the current predicament, regardless of country the most commonly used sites and applications are American, attesting examples could be You Tube, Google, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and more. Whereas, most smartphone brands are Chinese.

Like information itself this paranoia isn’t related to just our smart devices’ and the data within, a recent example of it could be the US’s decision to ban the sale and use of China’s Huawei Communications and ZTE’s multiple communication technology equipments into the country on grounds of hampering national security through possible breach of data security and user data compromise via their parent Chinese firms. The move is nothing but the latest in a series of restrictions USA has placed on China’s multiple corporations to curb the country’s presence and influence in the United States’ communication system. In 2018 under the Trump regime, Huawei was also banned from supplying communication technology and input in the government sector.

While the accusing and defending can be rest assured to be a long drawn out debacle, the point to be taken note of is the fact that as a whole, a nation is justified in preventing the citizen’s data and preventing foreign powers from gaining unlawful access to it. However, the sheer fact that the very presence of such data and it’s possibility of it being used as a profitable resource  makes some select powers greedily covet this information and create a global monopoly for it to exert its influence. Severely undermining the notion of the world being connected through technology as a big global village, and sharing of valuable knowledge and information allows humanity to progress and advance collectively as a whole, as one.