Information Privacy in Arrival:
While not a topic of direct exploration in the film, there exists some semblance of the topic of personal information privacy in Arrival. During the balance of Dr. Louise Banks, Dr. Ian Donnelly, and the other researchers and analysts are held to a degree of total secrecy in regard to the information retrieved from their sessions of interaction with the Heptapods. As a consequence, the civilian scientists and military personnel are placed under severe scrutiny during every waking moment of their time spent on-base, complete with pat-downs, wiretaps, the monitoring of personal phone calls, and the prior-agreement on the testing of their scientific hypotheses with the Heptapods. Bluntly, the individuals cannot enjoy any personal privacy strictly speaking, and they’re actions portrayed in the film are informed by the notion of their constant surveillance.
Privacy & the Government in Arrival:
While confined to the military base, members of the various US intelligence and security agencies monitor incoming and outgoing internet traffic to maintain the iron curtain. An example of this is CIA Agent Halpern’s near draconian operation of the military base as international tensions flared, descending on Dr. Banks on several occasions for her attempts to share her theories and findings; Halpern was capable of maintaining such a stranglehold on the operation via his covert and overt surveillance of the base’s civilian occupants.
Particularly, the US government as an entity was concerned with the dissemination of the information presented to the human race from the Heptapods. From a more granular perspective, the government aimed to wholly withhold all knowledge pertaining to the Heptapods, their intentions, and very existence from the public. From a more lateral perspective, the government also aimed to share as little as possible with cooperating foreign governments as well as more antagonistic actors under the guise of maintaining a competitive edge should the Heptapod situation escalate and become a more violent scenario.
Interestingly enough, the climactic conflict of Arrival is only solved when Dr. Banks breaks from the security protocol under threat of treason and a more active threat of Agent Halpern’s aimed firearm as Dr. Banks calls the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s General Shang on his personal phone, thus making a direct contact with him, assuaging his paranoia towards the Heptapods, and avoiding open war with the Heptapod visitors.
Given these portrayals, Arrival seeks to critique these aspects of Privacy and Government Surveillance; that clandestine efforts to maintain secrecy and withhold information in the scientific field can have severe and wide-reaching consequences, often resulting in the escalation of armed conflicts which the surveillance and regulation was aimed at avoiding.