Da notare che nella mappa, gli Stati Uniti sono contraddistinti dallo stesso colore della Russia, della Cina e di altri paesi a cavallo dell’Estremo Oriente. Il nero. L’Europa occidentale presenta diverse gradazioni: dalla sorveglianza estensiva a qualche salvaguardia ma scarse protezioni. Sono alcuni degli elementi che saltano all’occhio in apertura dello studio The 2007 International Privacy Ranking, pubblicato lo scorso 28 dicembre sul sito dell’organizzazione londinese Privacy International. Che esordisce scrivendo:

In recent years, Parliaments throughout the world have enacted legislation intended to comprehensively increase government’s reach into the private life of nearly all citizens and residents. Competing “public interest” claims on the grounds of security, law enforcement, the fight against terrorism and illegal immigration, administrative efficiency and welfare fraud have rendered the fundamental right of privacy fragile and exposed. The extent of surveillance over the lives of many people has ow reached an unprecedented level. Conversely, laws that ostensibly protect privacy and freedoms are frequently flawed – riddled with exceptions and exceptions that can allow government a free hand to intrude on private life.

At the same time, technological advances, technology standards, interoperability between information systems and the globalisation of information have placed extraordinary pressure on the few remaining privacy safeguards. The effect of these developments has been to create surveillance societies that nurture hostile environments for privacy.

Governments have created hundreds of key policy initiatives that, combined, may fundamentally destabilize core elements of personal privacy. Among these are proposals for the creation across society of “perfect” identity using fingerprint and iris scanning biometrics the linkage of public sector computer systems, the development of real-time tracking and monitoring throughout the communications spectrum, the development of real-time geographic vehicle and mobile phone tracing, national DNA databases, the creation of global information sharing agreements and the elimination of anonymity in cyberspace.