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January 17, 2008 Privacy in Canada is "decaying," said an international watchdog in its 2007 annual ranking of state and corporate surveillance around the world, and it has a lot to do with our government's cooperation in the U.S. "war on terror." Privacy International, "a human rights group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance and privacy invasions by governments and corporations," released its ranking on December 28. It showed that while Canada, Greece and Romania rank well comparatively in terms of privacy protections, Canada was worse off this year than last. The reasons behind our lower ranking included:
Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, told the Associated Press that the CIA's accessing of Canadian banking records through the SWIFT banking information system and the Canadian no-fly list were both examples of the erosion of privacy rights in this country. "He also decried the increasing number of programs involving the United States, which he said unfortunately has no federal privacy law," wrote Jill Lawless in her AP story. "What's happening, is that Canadian information, sensitive information, is flowing across the border in increasing volumes," Davies told Lawless, alluding to post-9/11 security arrangements like the Security and Prosperity Partnership. "Frankly, that's the sort of situation where government should put pressure on the U.S. government to protect that information legally… But it's not doing so." Privacy International ranks the United States, alongside Russia, China, England, Malaysia and Singapore, as "endemic surveillance societies." Map of Surveillance Societies around the world "Concern over immigration and border control dominated the world agenda in 2007," wrote the watchdog in its report. "Countries have moved swiftly to implement database, identity and fingerprinting systems, often without regard to the privacy implications for their own citizens." Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart recently addressed this problem in her 2006-07 annual report to Parliament. "We question the extensive use of travel-related security programs such as the no-fly list," she wrote. "We remain skeptical about whether security benefits will outweigh privacy risks. We intend to begin an audit of this program within a year of its launch date. "We also remain worried about the increased potential for data breaches stemming from the ever-bigger streams of personal information crossing borders without the appropriate and necessary protections in place. It is becoming abundantly clear that international frameworks and global enforcement mechanisms are needed to address transborder data flows." The Privacy International report added that these trends toward less privacy protection, "have been fuelled by the emergence of a profitable surveillance industry dominated by global IT companies and the creation of numerous international treaties that frequently operate outside judicial or democratic processes."
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