It seems to me – although I have no evidence of this
– that the European view on privacy differs somewhat from the
view in Canada, which in turn differs from the view in the U.S. I
have the impression that people in Europe, especially in the U.K.,
are quite comfortable with the idea of CCTV cameras everywhere, and
they may, for no apparent reason, be more trusting of governments.
Canadians are often shocked at the extent to which the British, in
particular, are okay with being observed by the authorities as they
walk about town.
So I've been reading the hot-off-the-press Directive
2016/680 of the European Parliament with interest. The new
directive is entitled a Directive "... on the protection
of natural persons with regard to the processing of data by
competent authorities for the purposes of the prevention,
investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the
execution of criminal penalties, and on the free movement of such
data, and repealing
