Canada better than U.S., U.K. at protecting citizens' privacy: study
Keith Bonnell
CanWest News Service
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Canada is one of the world's leading nations when it comes to protecting the privacy of its citizens, but this country's safeguards are slipping, says a new international survey.
Canada faired significantly better than the United States and parts of Europe, areas where privacy protections have been eroded in recent years, according to Privacy International, a London-based human rights group.
The group, which has just released its 2007 ranking, says that around the globe nations are increasingly infringing on the privacy of their citizens in the name of security and immigration control.
"The 2007 rankings indicate an overall worsening of privacy protection across the world," says an overview of Privacy International's findings on the group's website.
The report describes "an increasing trend amongst governments to archive data on the geographic, communications and financial records of all their citizens and residents.
"This trend leads to the conclusion that all citizens, regardless of legal status, are under suspicion," the report states.
The countries that received the highest marks for protecting individual privacy in 2007 were Greece, Romania and Canada.
However the news wasn't all good for Canada.
Last year this country was described as having "significant protections and safeguards." The new ranking says Canada has "some safeguards but weakened protections."
The lowest ranking countries in the survey were Malaysia, Russia and China.
The United States, which has been criticized for its domestic surveillance as part of its war on terrorism, joined the United Kingdom on the list of nations described as "endemic surveillance societies" - the ranking's worst category.
"In terms of statutory protections and privacy enforcement, the U.S. is the worst ranking country in the democratic world," the study found.
"In terms of overall privacy protection the United States has performed very poorly, being out-ranked by both India and the Philippines."
The organization also blamed the trend on "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."
Privacy International has been doing its global survey since 1997.
The organization says more than 200 experts - from scholars, to human rights advocates, to journalists - provided materials and commentary for the latest report, which is more than 1,100 pages long.
Keith Bonnell
CanWest News Service
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Canada is one of the world's leading nations when it comes to protecting the privacy of its citizens, but this country's safeguards are slipping, says a new international survey.
Canada faired significantly better than the United States and parts of Europe, areas where privacy protections have been eroded in recent years, according to Privacy International, a London-based human rights group.
The group, which has just released its 2007 ranking, says that around the globe nations are increasingly infringing on the privacy of their citizens in the name of security and immigration control.
"The 2007 rankings indicate an overall worsening of privacy protection across the world," says an overview of Privacy International's findings on the group's website.
The report describes "an increasing trend amongst governments to archive data on the geographic, communications and financial records of all their citizens and residents.
"This trend leads to the conclusion that all citizens, regardless of legal status, are under suspicion," the report states.
The countries that received the highest marks for protecting individual privacy in 2007 were Greece, Romania and Canada.
However the news wasn't all good for Canada.
Last year this country was described as having "significant protections and safeguards." The new ranking says Canada has "some safeguards but weakened protections."
The lowest ranking countries in the survey were Malaysia, Russia and China.
The United States, which has been criticized for its domestic surveillance as part of its war on terrorism, joined the United Kingdom on the list of nations described as "endemic surveillance societies" - the ranking's worst category.
"In terms of statutory protections and privacy enforcement, the U.S. is the worst ranking country in the democratic world," the study found.
"In terms of overall privacy protection the United States has performed very poorly, being out-ranked by both India and the Philippines."
The organization also blamed the trend on "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."
Privacy International has been doing its global survey since 1997.
The organization says more than 200 experts - from scholars, to human rights advocates, to journalists - provided materials and commentary for the latest report, which is more than 1,100 pages long.
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