Not really, remember how it turned out that the NSA was breaking the law? Nobody is really a first-world country, especially when the public isn't watching. The US is just first world more often than average. It probably has something to do with the fact that the public watches most of what's going on, at least on the basic level. Anywhere the public is confused (often the case for consumer and environmental issues) or deliberately kept in the dark (you-know-who) corruption runs rampant.