The US and the UK are 鈥渆ndemic surveillance societies鈥� 鈥� in the same league as China and Russia 鈥� says an . Released last month by advocacy groups Privacy International of the UK and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in Washington DC, the 2007 report also finds an increase in surveillance and a decline in privacy safeguards globally compared to 2006.
The US was in the bottom group for the first time, following the , which permits spying on international phone calls and emails without a warrant.
Like last year, the UK earned bottom place thanks to its network of surveillance cameras 鈥� the world鈥檚 largest 鈥� plus plans to roll out national identity cards rich with personal and biometric information, and little government accountability when personal information is lost. The UK government 鈥渉as access to its people and technology that China doesn鈥檛鈥�, says Gus Hosein of Privacy International. 鈥淭here is a rapid expansion of technologies for surveillance, identification and border control, and a much slower adoption of policies to safeguard privacy and security,鈥� adds EPIC鈥檚 Marc Rotenberg.
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Despite this, John Palfrey of the Open Net Initiative in Boston, Massachusetts, says the position in China and Russia is worse than in the US because they lack constitutional privacy protection. The only country judged to have 鈥渁dequate safeguards鈥� is Greece, where an independent data privacy authority can fine or imprison government officials.
