The standard was created by the ISO JTC1/SC 27 Working Group 5 (Privacy and Identity Management). It seems like mostly an European effort, which certainly isn't limited to Great Britain. Europeans usually take privacy very seriously.

In an interview Richard Stallman, head of the Free Software Foundation, said:

Microsoft corrupted many members of ISO in order to win approval for its phony 'open' document format, OOXML. This was so governments that keep their documents in a Microsoft-only format can pretend that they are using 'open standards.' The government of South Africa has filed an appeal against the decision, citing the irregularities in the process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standardization_of_Office_Open_...