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Police State Study Ranks U.S. As 6th Worst In The World

UK in 5th, behind only the most ardent dictatorships

Steve Watson
Infowars.net [1]
Tuesday, May 12, 2009



The report, titled The Electronic Police State [2], (PDF link) was compiled from information available from different organizations such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House, the Ludwig von Mises Institute and The Heritage Foundation.


The study was undertaken by a private company called “CryptoHippie [3]“, which specializes in privacy technologies.





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The report contains a colour coded world map, with red representing the most advanced electronic police states, orange for strongly developing electronic police states and yellow for nations that are further behind in terms of surveillance:

It is no surprise to see the UK ranking higher than the US, with it’s estimated 4.5 million CCTV cameras, it’s active DNA database, and given that the British government has openly announced the fact that it wants the authority to monitor and store all phone calls, text messages and emails [5], a practice already strongly rumoured to be in operation [6].


  2. Border issues: What is demanded for a border entry.
  3. Financial tracking: The state’s ability to search and record financial transactions.
  4. Gag orders: The penalties for revealing to someone else the state is searching their records.
  5. Anti-crypto laws: Bans on cryptography.
  6. Constitutional protections: Either a lack of protections or someone overriding them.
  7. Data storage: The state’s ability to record and keep what it uncovers.
  8. Data search: The processes to search through data.
  9. ISP data retention: The demand for ISPs to save customers’ records.
  10. Telephone data retention: States’ requirements for communications companies to record and save records.
  11. Cell phone records: The saving and using of cell phone users’ records.
  12. Medical records: Demands from states that medical records retain information.
  13. Enforcement: The state’s ability to use force (SWAT teams) to seize someone.
  14. Habeus corpus: Either an absence of such rights or someone overriding them.
  15. Police-Intel barrier: the absence of a barrier between police and intelligence organizations.
  16. Covert hacking: State operatives meddling in data on private computers covertly.
  17. Loose warrants: Warrants that are being issued without careful review of police claims by a truly independent judge.

The countries making up the top ten in the rankings are Singapore, Israel, France and Germany.

Following the top ten the rankings are: 11. Malaysia, 12. Ireland, 13. United Kingdom, Scotland, 14. Netherlands, 15. South Korea, 16. Ukraine, 17. Belgium, 18. Australia, 19. Japan, 20. New Zealand, 21. Austria, 22. Norway, 23. India, 24. Italy, 25. Taiwan, 26. Denmark, 27. Hungary, 28. Greece, 29. Canada, 30. Switzerland, 31. Slovenia, 32. Poland, 33. Finland, 34. Sweden, 35. Latvia, 36. Lithuania, 37. Cyprus, 38. Malta, 39. Estonia, 40. Czech Republic, 41. Iceland, 42. South Africa, 43. Spain, 44. Portugal, 45. Luxembourg, 46. Argentina, 47. Romania, 48. Thailand, 49. Bulgaria, 50. Brazil, 51. Mexico, 52. Philippines.