This Privacy International report has been mentioned all over the web since its release last week, and Scott Horton has the best summary at Harper's:
What do Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush and Hu Jintao have in common? They are the heads of the three most significant nations whose people live under "endemic surveillance"--that is to say, whose governments have a penchant for aggressively spying on their own people.
According to the report:
In terms of statutory protections and privacy enforcement, the US is the worst ranking country in the democratic world. In terms of overall privacy protection the United States has performed very poorly, being out-ranked by both India and the Philippines and falling into the "black" category, denoting endemic surveillance.
What other nations scored between 1.1 and 1.5 on the five-point scale, and are considered to be "Endemic surveillance societies?" Here's the list: China, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the UK and the US.
Dan Froomkin's WaPo piece on "Bush's Final Year" leads off with a description of the upcoming FISA fight between Bush and Congress as "a historic battle over the future of the country as a surveillance state," as if the last seven years haven't been disastrous enough.
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