States get ranked for privacy.

• Position: Statestats

California protects its citizens best against invasions of privacy, according to a survey by the Privacy Journal. Its Legislature passed a raft of new protections in the last two years. And its courts and constitution provide the strongest privacy protection in the nation. Minnesota runs a close second, some 33 percent higher than the next ranked state.

Privacy Journal rates the states on several factors, including whether they protect privacy in their constitutions; have laws protecting financial, medical, library and government files; and have fair credit reporting laws stronger than the federal law. Points are added when the state's highest court has a strong record on privacy; they are deducted for anti-privacy actions by state agencies or the legislature.

The top 10 states, according to the Providence R.I.-based monthly newsletter, are, in alphabetical order: California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Washington and Wisconsin. Only California, Minnesota and Hawaii have state offices assigned to protect personal privacy.

Significant strides have been made in Vermont, where courts and the attorney general are vigorous in protecting privacy, and in Arizona, Hawaii, Maine and Washington where laws have passed to protect medical confidentiality.

The ranking does not include the federal government, but Privacy Journal publisher Robert Ellis Smith says it would be in the below-average category. Federal laws do not protect medical records nor provide access to them, does not protect library records at all, and only partially protects financial records, he says. The passage of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 weakened many privacy protections. On the other hand, federal protection for personal information in government files exceeds the...