What explains this negative view of privacy?

"Much Japanese literature and thought has been infused with a thoroughly Buddhist worldview, Mizutani et. al. explained. "At the very core of this is not a connection between an everlasting soul and God, but rather the idea that the suffering of the world is linked to the desires of the ego or self& [T]he effacement of self influences privacy in that the most basic unit which privacy protects, the individual, is sublimated."

Many Western multinationals maintain data centers or call centers in India. But is their privacy training getting through to their Indian employees?

According to a survey by Carnegie Mellon researchers Ponnurangam Kumaraguru and Lorrie Cranor, Indians are markedly less concerned about privacy than Americans. Only this year did India pass a national data-protection law -- and it was more in response to EU and U.S. pressure than because of any popular outcry.

What explains the privacy gap in the subcontinent? Kumaraguru and Cranor concluded that Indians are more trusting than Americans that business and government will protect their personal information. "The Indian joint family tradition, in which it is common for households to include multiple brothers, their wives and their children (all living in a relatively small house, by US standards), results in more routine sharing of personal information among a wider group of people than is typical in the U.S." Said one survey respondent: "As an Indian mentality we always like to share things."

Commentators on the status of privacy in Africa point to similar collectivist mind-sets that may stymie Western corporate efforts to train employees there.

In their article "Western Privacy and/or Ubuntu? Some Critical Comments on the Forthcoming Data Privacy Bill in South Africa," University of Pretoria professors Hanno Olinger and Martin Olivier and University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Johannes Britz explain that ubuntu is a philosophy of living that pervades thought throughout Africa. It's characterized by "a community-based mindset in which the welfare of the group is greater than the welfare of a single individual in the group." The professors elaborate that individual members of the group "cannot imagine ordering their lives individually without the consent of their family, clan or tribe."

As a result, "Privacy as a notion does not function in African philosophical thinking." It's arguably only because of its desire to be seen by the EU as a safe place for data that South Africa is considering becoming the first country on the continent to pass a national data-protection law.