Privacy is in the eye of the beholder . From time to time something happens that gives spectacular confirmation of that simple statement. Consider what happened in Italy just few hours ago. "L'agenzia delle entrate", the Italian tax agency, published on their website the all tax declarations filed in Italy in 2006 (story in English here ). It is my understanding that this is perfectly common practice in various countries, like some Scandinavian nations, but in Italy that gesture simply had no precedents.