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According to a recent BBC News Report, the UK Government’s Information Commissioner has expressed concerns that Britain has become a country where personal monitoring is now far too commonplace. There are currently 4.2 million CCTV cameras in the UK - this is roughly one camera per 14 people living in the country. However, the monitoring goes much further than security cameras. Many companies now use GPS technology to monitor the progress and location of its staff. Other companies use keystroke logging to monitor productivity. However, one of the most widespread monitoring techniques is one of the most popular that most users happily sign up for: Loyalty Cards. Supermarket loyalty cards can be (and are frequently) used to track what individual products a person buys regularly. This data may then be used to offer direct marketing for things the shopper may be interested in, or just to create a shopper profile. Despite this potential breach of security, shoppers line up for their loyalty cards in an effort to save money. However, recent figures published by Privacy International show Britain in a much worse light.

Several countries were compared in terms of their internal policies with regard to privacy protection, data sharing, communications interception, workplace monitoring and data protection amongst other categories. These were all rated on a scale of 1 to 5, where 5 represented “no invasive policy or widespread practice/leading in best practice” and 1 was “extensive surveillance/leading in bad practice.”

In “overall” score, the UK managed a frightening 1.5. To put this into perspective, China (a country widely criticised for its monitoring of citizens and poor record of digital rights) was given a 1.3 rating. The US managed a rating of 2.0.

The full Privacy International table is available here but it does not make particularly comfortable reading. In a technologically developed society such as the UK, you would expect that your privacy and data would be safeguarded by Government policies. However, it seems that the UK Government’s policies are causing the problem in the first place. Germany has extremely strict privacy laws and it managed 3.9 in the Privacy International report - this was the highest rating given. In terms of technological and economic development, Germany is in a similar position to the UK. The question we should be asking the Government is that if Germany can protect the privacy of its people, why can’t the UK?