Privacy International, a long-standing privacy advocacy group, has just released their 2007 International Privacy Ranking, including a rather black-looking map of the World indicating the state of privacy assessed for each nation. It’s a useful analysis for anyone interested in the subject.
The analysis indicates an overall worsening of privacy protection across the Globe, reflecting an increase in surveillance and a declining performance of privacy safeguards. This is no surprise given the mushrooming growth in the capture and accessibility of information of all types.
Greece, Romania and Canada come out quite well, with the US is rated as the worst in the democratic world, with the UK lowest in Europe, rated alongside Russia and Singapore. The survey also rates the UK as a world-leader in surveillance schemes. I guess we have to be good at something.