Jul 31st, 2008
Posted by Suzanne Ito, ACLU at 2:00pm	Free Speech, Keep America Safe & Free, Technology and Liberty

No Pesky Privacy Privileges in China, Either

When it comes to China, the Olympics and surveillance, OpenLeft's Daniel DeGroot reminds us of a very good point: When it comes to privacy safeguards, China, along with the United States, the U.K. and Russia, are "black"—meaning, the worst of the worst— on Privacy International's map of the world's surveillance societies.

We enumerated back in January the Bush administration policies that won us this dubious distinction.

For those of you who are heading to China for some good, old-fashioned fun (under the watchful eyes of the thousands surveillance cameras the Chinese government has installed, for your and the athletes' safety, of course), The New York Times has collected the numerous handy guides for journalists covering the human rights situation in China. They're intended for journos, but are useful for anyone who wishes to communicate—or blog—under the radar (so to speak).

Permalink |	Free Speech, Keep America Safe & Free, Technology and Liberty

1. Madison Says:
   Jul 31st, 2008 at 3:57pm

   We seem to be on a lot of lists next to China and Russia recently. Holy cow.

2. JimSpiel Says:
   Aug 3rd, 2008 at 3:28pm

   Why should we trust the judgment of Privacy International?

   The linked page for the organization indicates: 1) Almost every country it scores is ranked as an unmitigated disaster, 2) Its finances are opaque, some ambiguous words but no actual numbers or complete lists, 3) a striking homogeneity among the the trustees and members of something called an advisory board.

   The blogger should have established the organization's bone fides first. In that absence, it looks like the blogger has a preconceived notion and was just looking for corroboration.

   This is a trash posting. I expect better.