A tale of two cultures
The New York Times ran an interesting article earlier this week contrasting American and European personal data protection practices. In Europe, the right to privacy is considered fundamental, and accordingly most European countries have passed extensive privacy laws and established governmental agencies to specifically deal with data protection. The United States government tends to treat privacy as an afterthought, enacting laws as a form of damage control. Americans tend to treat privacy as a consumer issue, placing their trust in business more often than they do the government. This has been a key factor in the growth of commercial databases such as ChoicePoint.
Those wishing to get a more in-depth look at international privacy laws and attitudes should take a look at EPIC and Privacy International’s joint 2003 Privacy and Human Rights report. Over fifty-five countries are included in the report, which also attempts to document the privacy-related responses to the September 11 terrorist attacks.