The London-based "Privacy International" organization released a worrying report regarding individual privacy, in which Israel came under fire but still outranked the US, Britain, France and Holland.
A new report from the human rights group claimed that individual privacy rights were under attack in many western countries, including Israel ,which was ranked 26th among the 47 nations examined.
According to the report, published Sunday by the Canadian newspaper "Globe and Mail", Greece, Canada and Romania are among the leading nations in the protection of individual privacy rights. Countries like Malaysia, Russia and China have been pointed out as blatantly overlooking their citizens' individual privacy rights.
According to the officials who conducted the survey, many failures were found in Israel that were detrimental to individual privacy. "Although the right to individual privacy (in Israel) is considered a basic one, many exceptions are permitted due to national security," said the report, noting the "Big Brother" act that was passed by Knesset.
'Congress has done nothing'
The group also pointed out several other failures, including Israel Police's authority to hold DNA samples for up to 7 years. According to the group, police database accumulates 20,000 samples each year.
With that being said, Israel still outranked many Western countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Sweden and Holland. The group called out the US and Britain for imposing a number of laws in 2007 that allow authorities to investigate private citizens with relative ease.
"There is a world-wide trend in which privacy is being violated, even countries that we wouldn't expect to find on the report – such as Germany and Canada," said the director of the organization, Simon Davies.
US President George W. Bush has come under fire this year on his home turf due to a domestic wiring tap law that passed in Congress. The law allows for authorities to monitor phone calls and e-mails of suspected terrorists without having to obtain a legal search warrant. "In the last 5 years we have witnessed a litany of surveillance initiatives, that the elected Congress has done nothing about", said Davies.