I don’t know how accurate this report from Cryptohippie.com (hat-tip to Sunni Maravillosa) is, but I thought it was interesting.

It ranks countries as police states, based on 17 factors:

1) Daily documents 2) Border issues 3) Financial tracking 4) Gag orders 5) Anti-crypto laws 6) Constitutional protection 7) Data storage ability 8)Data retention ability 9) ISP data retention 10) Telephone data retention 11) Cell phone records 12) Medical records 13) Enforcement ability 14) Habeas Corpus 15) Police-Intel barrier 16) Covert hacking 17) Loose warrants

At the top were the communist countries: China and North Korea.

Then came the former communist countries: Belarus and Russia

Next:  the UK, US, and Singapore

Please note:: I couldn’t find much about the privacy firm that created the report, Cryptohippie, and have no idea how authoritative the report is. Any further insights are welcome.