UK citizens are the most monitored in the whole of Europe, according to a new
report by Privacy International.
In its
2007
International Privacy Ranking, the civil liberties group looked at how 47
countries carried out surveillance activities on citizens and described the UK
as having an “endemic surveillance” society; beaten only beaten by China, Russia
and Malaysia.
Britain’s “huge” CCTV network, the proposed
national
identity card scheme, and a lack of Government accountability were cited as
reasons for the country’s poor privacy performance.
The study also raised concerns that UK “councils continue to spread
surveillance policies, including
RFID,
CCTV,
ID and data sharing, and road user tracking”, and criticised the lack of power
given to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to protect people.
A representative for the ICO welcomed the report and told Computeractive:
“The Information Commissioner has previously warned that the UK is at risk of
becoming a surveillance society.”
“It is essential that all organisations which process personal information
take data protection seriously in order to effectively protect individuals’
privacy."
Privacy International assessed each of the countries in the study on a range
of factors, including the data protection offered to people, how data is stored
and how much eavesdropping takes place. The civil liberties group said its
findings show how governments are increasingly archiving data on the geographic,
communications and financial records of all their citizens.
In May last year the
ICO
warned the UK was “in danger of sleepwalking into a surveillance society".
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