Privacy, what's it good for?

A new international ranking of privacy protections. Britain is the "worst in Europe":

Britain, the country with the world's biggest network of surveillance cameras, has the worst record in Europe for the protection of privacy, according to a report from a London-based international watchdog. The UK is billed as "an endemic surveillance society" alongside Russia, the US, Singapore and China in the survey of 47 countries by Privacy International (PI).

No surprise there. On the other hand, not to crow about this too much:

Canada heads the international table, with Argentina, Iceland and Switzerland close behind.

This might help to explain why I care so strongly about the subject. I guess I just grew up in a place where the government and police mostly stayed out of our lives, and that seems 'normal' to me. Here, everything I do is recorded and likely analyzed, even though it's just boring everyday crud. Makes you feel like a suspect, it does. It's always in the back of my mind, and as a result I always make a subconscious effort to do little things like paying in cash, and leaving blank spaces in paperwork when I think it's none of their business. I just assume that any information I allow companies and the government to gather about me will be misused. All the same, they announced just last week that they'd lost some of my personal information.

[ I took the driving theory test between the dates in question ]