Europeans are Good at Keeping Secrets

In fact, that may be the reason why it seems as though privacy is sacred across the pond, and up for grabs in the States.

Nearly 40 U.S. states now require public notification of security breaches, while EU member states have only started to consider this requirement.

This means that Europe could be experiencing just as many breaches as the U.S., but several factors make it more likely that U.S. breaches will be publicized. Indeed, 94% of the EU companies surveyed by Ponemon/White & Case reported that they had experienced a breach in the past three years, compared with 86% for the U.S. sample.

Within the past year we’ve heard many horror stories here in the US about how our personal information is being stolen, sold, and passed around to anyone who wants it. A stolen laptop in Maryland, a data breach at UC Berkeley , and don’t forget about Choicepoint…the list goes on.

Mix all of this with news about military USB tokens being sold in Afghan markets and NSA wiretapping, it seems though none of our information is safe in the US and that our European counterparts are immune to this sort of thing.

Here’s an article examining why this seems to be the case, but might not be after all.

Perhaps some have experienced this perception when dealing from the US with European companies or hold these perceptions themselves. Best to examine our perceptions from time to time, even if we decide not to tell anybody.