The 2014 Privies

Extremely entertaining - and, in parallel, depressing reading - at Skating on Stilts which has announced the shortlist for the 2014 Privies - dubious achievements in privacy law. Privacy has been getting quite the airing in the past year, which makes the shortlist candidates even more impressive. Please go and vote for your favourite.

While I don't want to unduly influence voting, I feel I must draw attention to some particularly outstanding candidates. First up, President Hollande of France for "Privacy Hypocrite of the Year":

President Hollande called President Obama to describe U.S. spying on its allies as "totally unacceptable," language that was repeated by the Foreign Ministry when it castigated the U.S. ambassador over a story in Le Monde claiming that NSA had scooped up 70 million communications in France in a single month.
Whoops. Two days later, former French foreign minister Kouchner admitted, "Let's be honest, we eavesdrop too. Everyone is listening to everyone else. But we don't have the same means as the United States, which makes us jealous."

For "Worst use of privacy law to protect power and privilege", Max Moseley must be the front runner by a mile:

Mosley himself achieved notoriety in 2009, when the media published pictures of him naked and engaged in a sado-masochistic orgy with five prostitutes. In a move that seems to define self-defeating, Mosley went to court to establish that it was a naked, five-hour sado-masochistic orgy with five hookers, but it wasn't a naked, five-hour sado-masochistic orgy with five hookers and a Nazi theme. He won.

I await the announcement of the shortlist for "Dumbest Privacy cases" with great interest...