The report reviews the degree of privacy in 60 countries, and
paints a dark vision of the status of personal privacy in the post
9/11 world.
"Governments are systematically removing the right to privacy,"
warned Simon Davies, Privacy International's Director.
"Surveillance of every type is being instituted throughout society
without any thought about the need for safeguards."
"The spectre of terrorism has at last become the device that any
government can deploy to entrench the powers they always sought.
The situation has become a dangerous farce," he added.
The report claims that recent crime and public order laws have
limited the rights to freedom of speech, privacy, freedom of
movement, freedom of assembly and the right to silence, while
governments have continued to use the threat of terrorism as a
reason for increasing surveillance, even when that surveillance is
unnecessary.
The report points to a worldwide trend towards mass surveillance
of the public and cites examples of illegal spying and surveillance
by enforcement agencies.
The implementation of ID schemes, the surveillance and retention
of communications data, the weakening of data protection schemes,
and an increase in data sharing and collaboration are additional
responses to the security threat, says the report.
