Ummm... (0.00 / 0)

What does the pink represent?  It's not on the key...

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by: John T. Hering @ Thu Jul 31, 2008 at 03:34:45 AM UTC

Yes it is (0.00 / 0)

Right above black.

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by: Jack @ Thu Jul 31, 2008 at 05:53:25 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Go Go Greece (0.00 / 0)

The only country in the world with "adequate" surveillance safeguards!

One might question how useful their scale is for analytic purposes given the distribution, although it certainly gets across their larger political point.

Many Venezuelans might disagree with the non-categorization of that country.

John McCain: Health insurance for low income children represents an "unfunded liability."

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by: FuzzyDunlop @ Thu Jul 31, 2008 at 13:59:11 PM UTC

Don't think (0.00 / 0)

Venezeula is rated there.  It's grey.

I see what you mean by distribution, but they're not attempting a relative measurement.  They have spelt out criteria and most of the world is not meeting them.  This is a global phenomenon towards less and less privacy.

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by: Daniel De Groot @ Thu Jul 31, 2008 at 14:04:47 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Agree both ways (0.00 / 0)

I was just pointing out that many Venezuelans, especially recently, have come to have pretty strong feelings, with good reason, that their country has become a surveillance state.  I guess its not rated because the data isn't available or something.

And the map certainly gets the point across about a global movement toward surveillance and intrusions on privacy.  It would be interesting, though, if they produced a finer grained measure that could differentiate a bit more between the four categories that make up just about every rated country.  As cynical as I am about the Bush administration, for instance, I've been to Myanmar and I really don't think that the US and Myanmar are particularly comparable in terms of police state surveillance.  We don't have the FBI knocking on our doors at 2:00 AM because somebody spent the night at our place without an official permit and the informant down the hall squealed, for example.

John McCain: Health insurance for low income children represents an "unfunded liability."

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by: FuzzyDunlop @ Thu Jul 31, 2008 at 14:30:30 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Actually (0.00 / 0)

Myanmar isnt even rated on this map.  But you get my point.

John McCain: Health insurance for low income children represents an "unfunded liability."

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by: FuzzyDunlop @ Thu Jul 31, 2008 at 14:31:50 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Yes I do (0.00 / 0)

And I do actually agree that it is hyperbolic to put the US and even China on the same category.

The US is not filtering internet traffic, and while the government spying legalization is quite problematic, you can't be prosecuted for criticizing the president or the government on the phone and so on.

They need an even lower category for completely privacy-free countries.  

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by: Daniel De Groot @ Thu Jul 31, 2008 at 14:34:29 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

And in Africa (0.00 / 0)

My friend from Togo living next door in Ghana explained the difference: "All politicians are corrupt. The President of Ghana is corrupt and the President of Togo is corrupt. The difference is that here I can say that the President of Ghana is corrupt and not worry about it. But if I say that the President is corrupt in Togo, they will come in the night and kill me."

BTW In the same way that Ghana is relatively a free country, its government is relatively less corrupt. Being in Africa, I'm sure even the President is in some way corrupt by Western standards, but by African standards the country is free and fairly honest.

Meanwhile note that in this country (and in Occupied Iraq) the Culture of Corruption has thrived alongside the expansion of the (secret and unappealable) no-fly list, government spying on emails and text messages, the end-run around habeas corpus, data mining, random drug testing, Border Patrol stops on the Interstates, etc  

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by: Woody @ Thu Jul 31, 2008 at 15:16:34 PM UTC

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this map is what's idiotic (0.00 / 0)

I'm mad at the dismantling of privacy and safeguards, but there's no way you can compare the level of surveillance in the US to Russia and China (or for that matter even to Britain and most of Europe, where there are CCTV cameras almost everywhere).  It bugs me to see these things because it's patently foolish, and posting it just makes the people who rightly criticize American encroachment on rights look stupid.

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by: midnight rambler @ Thu Jul 31, 2008 at 20:12:26 PM UTC

Agree about Russia/China (0.00 / 0)

But not about Europe.  CCTV in public places is worthy of concern, but not really so much worse than the kinds of privacy violations occuring in the US.

Read the link, they're not just looking at government spying, but also workplace snooping, medical records, the whole gamut of privacy laws.

Europe has strong EU codes on information sharing between companies and so forth that the US lacks.  In some ways Privacy is stronger than in the US, though national laws like in Britain can make the situation as bad too.

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by: Daniel De Groot @ Thu Jul 31, 2008 at 20:40:40 PM UTC

[ Parent ]