According to Malaysia-based attorney Abdul Raman Saad, the Quran contains several imperatives to protect privacy. In his article "Information Privacy and Data Protection: A Proposed Model for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," Saad points to Sura Al-Hujurat, Verse 12 ("spy not on each other behind their backs"), Sura An-Nur, Verse 27 ("enter not houses other than your own, until ye have asked permission and saluted those in them") and Sura Al-Hujurat, Verse 11 ("Let not some men among you laugh at others & Nor defame nor be sarcastic to each other, nor call each other by offensive nicknames").

Saad also cites the 1994 Arab Charter of Human Rights as a sign of Islamic respect for privacy. Its Article 21 mirrors the UN declaration: "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with regard to his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour or his reputation."

For its part, the Catholic Church -- whose St. Thomas Aquinas is seen by many as a founder of Western jurisprudence -- proposes many aspects of privacy in common with Judaism and Islam. Its articulation of those concepts, however, may be more familiar to the Western ear. The Catechism of the Catholic Church echoes the modern need-to-know principle ("No one is bound to reveal the truth to someone who does not have a right to know it" (#2489), the restricted-sharing principle ("Private information prejudicial to another is not to be divulged without a grave and proportionate reason" (#2491), and the minimum-use principle ("Everyone should observe an appropriate reserve concerning persons' private lives. Those in charge of communications should maintain a fair balance between the requirements of the common good and respect for individual rights." (#2492).

If a person sins, in the church's view, he damages his relationship with God as well as the rest of society, even if his thought or action caused no tangible harm to others.

And all three monotheistic faiths link privacy to personal modesty, as manifested most visibly in the burqa, nun's habit and traditional Jewish woman's garb.

Solutions for multinationals?

Companies pursuing BCRs and needing employees around the world to connect with and adhere to their new privacy policy can't wait for world peace and understanding. So how can they navigate through the multicultural labyrinth of privacy?

One obvious way is to translate privacy-training materials from English into local languages. Another is to try other words besides "privacy." We have a hard enough time in English-speaking countries deciding what privacy means, so why impose our problem on others? Similar concepts that may carry the water include modesty, solitude, anonymity and personal safety, in addition to the EU's preferred "data protection" construct.