The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is a public interest research center in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values. EPIC is a project of the Fund for Constitutional Government. EPIC works in association with Privacy International, an international human rights group based in London, UK and is also a member of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign, the Internet Free Expression Alliance and the Internet Privacy Coalition.

The EPIC Bookstore provides a comprehensive selection of books and reports on computer security, cryptography, the First Amendment and free speech, open government, and privacy. Visit the EPIC Bookstore at www.epic.org/bookstore/.

About Privacy International

Privacy International is a human rights group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance by governments and corporations. PI is based in London, UK and has an office in Washington, D.C. PI has conducted campaigns in Europe, Asia and North America to counter abuses of privacy by way of information technology such as telephone tapping, ID card systems, video surveillance, data matching, police information systems, and medical records.

An electronic version of this report and updates is available from the Privacy International web page at http://www.privacyinternational.org/

Copyright © 1999 by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Privacy International

First edition 1999 Printed in the United States of America All Rights Reserved

ISBN: 1-893044-05-X

EPIC Staff

Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director
David L. Sobel, General Counsel
Andrew Shen, Policy Analyst
David Banisar, Senior Fellow
Wayne Madsen, Senior Fellow
Ethan Preston, Law Clerk

Acknowledgments

This report was written by Privacy International and the Electronic Privacy Information Center with support from the Open Society Institute and the EPIC Trust. The authors of this report are David Banisar, Deputy Director of Privacy International and Senior Fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Simon Davies, Director General of Privacy International.

Knowledgeable individuals from academia, government, human rights groups and other fields were asked to submit reports and information. Their reports were supplemented with information gathered from Constitutions, laws, international and national government documents, news reports, human rights reports and other sources. The following people provided invaluable reports, information and advice:

Jason Abrams, EPIC; Andrzej Adamski, Nicolas Copernicus University, Poland; Yaman Akdeniz, Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK); Mads Bryde Andersen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; Maria JosČ Barbosa, CNPDPI, Portugal; Jacques Berleur, Facultes Universitaires N.D. de la Paix, Belgium; Colin Bennett, University of Victoria, Canada; Mark Berthold, Office of the Ombudsman, New Zealand; Diana Alonso Blas, Registratiekamer, Netherlands; Marie-HČlËne Boulanger, Commission de la Protection de la Vie PrivČe, Belgium; Ian Brown, Privacy International London; Ronnie Breckheimer, EPIC; Herbert Burkert, GMD, Germany; Lee Bygrave, Norwegian Research Centre for Computers & Law; Rafael Fernandez Calvo, CLI, Spain; Duncan Campbell, IPTV, United Kingdom; Anne Carblanc, OECD, France; Pavel Cerny, EPS, Czech Republic; Dmitry Chereshkin, Russian Academy of Natural Sciences; Tyng-Ruey Chuang, Taiwan Association for Human Rights; Dr. Richard Claude, Washington, D.C.; Tracy Cohen, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa; Kathleen Ellis, EPIC; JŰn Erlendsson, Iceland; William G. Ferroggiard, National Security Archive; David Flaherty, BC Privacy Commissioner, Canada; Alex Fowler, Electronic Frontier Foundation; Maurice Frankel, Campaign for Freedom of Information; Lauren Gelman, USACM; Marie Georges, CNIL, France; Eric Goldstein Human Rights Watch Middle East/North Africa; Graham Greenleaf, University of New South Wales, Australia; Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, India; Alex, Hamilton, Liberty, United Kingdom; Jan Haverkamp, Czech Republic; Gus Hosein, Privacy International; Deborah Hurley, Harvard Information Infrastructure Project; Joel Jaakkola, Finland; Ms. Ona Jakstaite, State Data Protection Inspection, Lithuania; Sigr™n JŰhannesdŰttir, The Iclandic Data Protection Commission; Alexander Kashumov, Access to Information Programme, Bulgaria; Michael Kassner, EPIC; Yeoh Beng Keat, Ministry of Energy, Communications and Multimedia, Malaysia; Joohan Kim, Boston College; Maija Kleemola, Office of Data Protection Ombudsman, Finland; Dieter Kronegger, Arge Daten, Austria; Jorma Kuopus, Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, Finland; Margarita Lacabe, Derechos Human Rights; Anne-Christine Lacoste, Belgian Privacy Data Protection Commission; Steven Lau, Hong Kong Privacy Commissioner; Georg Lechner, Austrian Data Protection Commission; L·szlŰ MajtČnyi, Hungarian Information and Privacy Commissioner; Jose Luis Martin Mas, FREE, Spain; Veni Markovski, Internet Society Bulgaria; Viktor Mayer-Sch–nberger, Austria; Wayne Madsen, EPIC; Jay McKinnon, EPIC; Robin McLeish, Hong Kong Privacy Commissionerís Office; Erich Moechel, quintessenz, Austria; Dinesh Nair; Detlef Nogala, Max-Planck-Institut, Germany; Nelly Ognyanova, Bulgarian Institute for Legal Development; Kaidi Oone, Estonian State Chancellery, Department of State Information Systems; Steve Orlowski, Attorney General's Office, Australia; Hugues Parasie, Commission de la Protection de la Vie PrivČe, Belgium; Andriy Pazyuk, Privacy Ukraine; Stephanie Perrin, Industry Canada; Yves Poullet, CRID, Belgium; Andrei Pribylov, Human Rights Network, Russia; Ivan Prochazka, Office for the State Information System, Chech Republic; Edwin Rekosh, Public Interest Law Initiative in Transitional Societies, Columbia Law School; Joel Reidenberg, Fordham Law School, USA; Dovota Rowicka, Bureau of Inspector General for the Protection of Personal Data; Felipe Rodriquez, Electronic Frontiers Australia; Dr Paul Roth, University of Otago, New Zealand; Anneliese Roos, South Africa; Andrew Russell, Harvard Information Infrastructure Project; Rohan Samarajiva, Telecom Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka; Dag Wiese Schartum, Norway; Anat Scolnicov, Association for Civil Rights in Israel; Jin Wan Seo, Department of Public Administration, University of Inchon, South Korea; Bernard Silva, Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner, Australia; Catharina Sj–lin The Data Inspection Board, Sweden; Sergei Smirnov, Human Rights Network, Russia; Barry Steinhardt, ACLU; Blair Stewart, New Zealand Privacy Commission; Bettina Stomper, quintessenz, Austria; Ivan Szekely, Central European University, Hungary; Marie VallČe, FNACQ, Canada; Shauna Van Dongen, EPIC; Nigel Waters, Australia; Raymond Wacks, The University of Hong Kong; Maurice Wessling; XS4ALL, Netherlands; Justine White, South Africa; Ingrid Wilson; Australian Privacy Commission; Bobson Wong, Digital Freedom Network; Ko Youngkyoung, Social Information Networking Group, South Korea.