Privacy rights 'fragile' in 2007

BBC | Dec. 31, 2007

Threats to personal privacy got more severe in 2007, a report has claimed.

Compiled by Privacy International and the Electronic Privacy Information Center the report details global trends in privacy protection and surveillance.

It found that in 2007 more nations than ever ranked as places where surveillance had become "endemic".

The move toward greater surveillance had left the fundamental right to a private life "fragile and exposed", the report said.

Complex threat

The 1,000 page report from the two campaigning groups details what governments, companies and lobby groups have done in the past 12 months to defend or dismantle privacy online or offline.

Overall, wrote the report's authors, privacy protection "worsened" during 2007.

As in previous years the report found no nation which consistently tried to uphold privacy or gave substantial help, legislative or otherwise, to protect personal data.

Greece topped the table of 47 countries ranked in the report and was the only one that was identified as having "adequate safeguards against abuse".

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