[Infowarrior] - Individual privacy under threat in Europe and U.S., report says

[Richard Forno]

 Individual privacy under threat in Europe and U.S., report says

The Associated Press
Sunday, December 30, 2007

http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=8957581

LONDON: Individual privacy is under threat in the United States and across
the European Union as governments introduce sweeping surveillance and
information-gathering measures in the name of security and controlling
borders, an international rights group has said in a report.

Greece, Romania and Canada had the best privacy records of 47 countries
surveyed by Privacy International, which is based in London. Malaysia,
Russia and China were ranked worst.

Both Britain and the United States fell into the lowest-performing group of
"endemic surveillance societies."

"The general trend is that privacy is being extinguished in country after
country," said Simon Davies, director of Privacy International. "Even those
countries where we expected ongoing strong privacy protection, like Germany
and Canada, are sinking into the mire."

In the United States, the administration of President George W. Bush has
come under fire from civil liberties groups for its domestic wiretapping
program, which allows monitoring, without a warrant, of international phone
calls and e-mail messages involving people suspected of having terrorist
links.

"The last five years has seen a litany of surveillance initiatives," Davies
said.

He said little had changed since the Democrats took control of Congress a
year ago.

"We would expect the cancellation of some programs, the review of others,
but this hasn't occurred," Davies said.

Britain was criticized for its plans for national identity cards, a lack of
government accountability and the world's largest network of surveillance
cameras.

Davies said the loss earlier this year of computer disks containing personal
information and bank details on 25 million people in Britain highlighted the
risks of centralizing information on huge government databases.

The report, released Saturday, said privacy protection was worsening across
Western Europe, although it was improving in the former Communist states of
Eastern Europe.

It said concern about terrorism, immigration and border security was driving
the spread of identity and fingerprinting systems, often without regard to
individual privacy.

The report said the trends had been fueled by the emergence "of a profitable
surveillance industry dominated by global IT companies and the creation of
numerous international treaties that frequently operate outside judicial or
democratic processes."

The survey considers a range of factors, including legal protection of
privacy, enforcement, data sharing, the use of biometrics and the prevalence
of closed circuit TV cameras.

"People shouldn't feel despondent about the results," Davies said. "Our view
is that privacy-friendly systems will emerge in coming years and that
consumers will soon begin to see privacy as a political issue."