Well, it depends on what you call "Privacy". See, the Europeans (as a whole) take a completely different attitude towards Government and Private Organizations

Well, it depends on what you call "Privacy". See, the Europeans (as a whole) take a completely different attitude towards Government and Private Organizations than Americans do. To many Americans, the Government is the big, bad wolf, trying to take everything from us. In Europe (to a much larger degree) they take the opposite stance. To many EU citizens, they can control the Government and it's policies at the ballot box, but not so the Corporations. That's why the best Privacy regulations regarding Corporations are coming from Europe, and not the US. I won't say one way is better than the other, but it's telling that almost every major IT Security standard that deals with Privacy (absent NIST of course) takes its guidance from the EU.