U.S. at the Bottom of Global Privacy Rankings

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

PC World
by Scott Nichols
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/006143.html

U.S. at the Bottom of Global Privacy Rankings


Big Brother lives. And he may live a lot closer to home than you might think or want.

Human rights organization Privacy International compiled list of the best and worst countries in 2007 for citizen privacy versus government surveillance. The United States sits squarely at the bottom of that list with Privacy International classifying the country as one of the world's most "endemic surveillance societies."

Other low ranking countries include: China, Russia, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and England. Greece was the highest ranking country when it came to citizen privacy protection. Privacy International said that Greece had "adequate safeguards against abuse." No country reached the highest ranking of "significant protections and safeguards" or "consistently upholds human rights safeguards."

The US has dropped in status since last year, when it was given the marginally better label of an "extensive surveillance society."

To some the ranking of high surveillance may sound like a good thing, after all more surveillance means more security, right? However it is important to note that the US ranking is below the ranking of "systemic failure to uphold safeguards" when regarding citizen privacy. There is a trade-off at work where more security means less privacy.

As for me, I'd like to have a bit more privacy. Hopefully in 2008 the U.S. can raise its privacy standards to something above an utter failure.