===== News release «Big Brother Awards 2004» (5e) October 16th, 2004 ** Fifth Swiss «Big Brother Awards» -- THE WINNERS: -- Corps commander Hansruedi Fehrlin, Swiss Air Force (cat. government) -- santésuisse, Solothurn (cat. business) -- Zürich Municipal Police (cat. workspace) -- Josef Leu (National Councillor CVP/Lucerne, cat. lifetime award) -- Daniele Jenni (positive "Winkelried" award) This and previous press releases (in german and french) are available at: http://www.bigbrotherawards.ch/2004/presse/ ===== News release «Big Brother Awards 2004» (5e) -- October 16th, 2004 ************************************************************ --> BLOCKING PERIOD: Saturday, October 16th, 2004, 21:30 hrs ************************************************************ ** Fifth Swiss «Big Brother Awards» The winners of the fifth Swiss «Big Brother Awards» were announced on Saturday evening, October 16th, during the awards ceremony in the impressive old «Steeltec» industrial hall in Emmenbrücke (Lucerne). These satirical "prizes" are granted annually by a committee to commemorate the most objectionable breaches of data protection. BBAs are awarded internationally; in Switzerland the contest took place for the fifth time. Three concrete trophies went to the biggest snoopers in the categories «government», «business» und «workspace». Additionally, a «lifetime award» was awarded for particularly insistent, life-long snitching. Apart from these four negative prizes, the «Winkelried Award» was granted for outstanding resistance against surveillance and control. Nominations of the laureates were made by the general public. Until the end of August more than 100 proposals had been submitted. After a first screening the organizational committee forwarded 52 nominations to an independent jury, consisting of 13 individuals who operate in different organizations, institutions or media and are concerned with the topics surveillance, control and breach of the base right of informational self-determination (see ). --> A complete list of the nominees and the reasons for their appointment as well as references is available at: http://www.bigbrotherawards.ch/2004/nomination/nominees/ After Zürich (2000, 2001), Winterthur (2002) and Berne (2003), the «Big Brother Awards» were for the first time hosted in Central Switzerland, as part of the new event «pulp - platform for digital culture» (October 15th - 17th, see http://www.pulpnet.ch). A «CCTV sight seeing» event took place on Saturday morning, followed by an international conference and a panel discussion on surveillance and control in the afternoon in Emmenbrücke (see http://www.bigbrotherawards.ch/2004/event). During the ceremony, pleasurably managed by the Lucerne stage-director Dieter Ockenfels, actor Ernst Jenni read a sometimes cynical honorific speech (excerpts available online shortly, in german). Instead of the invited but absent award recipients actor Daniel Kasztura accepted the shapely concrete cups. The event was supplemented by broadcasts of the private TV channel «Tele G» (Guido Henseler) and accompanied by the Bernese musicians «Super-Tops». Also during the ceremony, the organizers announced the submission procedure for the «Big Brother Awards 2005» as opened (forms are available online, in french and german). ** THE PRIZE WINNERS More than half of the candidates (28) applied for a «government award». The winner in this category was the commander in chief of the Swiss Air Force, corps commander Hansruedi Fehrlin, praised for his support for an unmanned surveillance drone of the type «ADS 95 Ranger» (Nomination Nr. 3130). The Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports (DDPA) thereby managed to follow up on its previous successes: In the year 2000 it received a trophy for the satellite snooping system «SATOS-3» (subsequently renamed to «ONYX»). And last year Federal councillor Samuel Schmid won a «Big Brother Award» for the DDPA conscript questionnaire. The contest for the «government award» proved to be highly competitive, as in previous years. Federal councillor CHRISTOPH BLOCHER (SVP) and his young forerunner RUTH METZLER (CVP) jointly qualified for the second place, for their effort in tightening of the refugee legislation (Nr. 3477). The BERNESE SUPREME COURT came third for its dragnet investigation based on data of the Cumulus consumer card of the Swiss retail chain Migros (Nr. 3549). Twelve candidates competed for the «business award». The winner is SANTÉSUISSE, the alliance of Swiss health insurers, for its successful implementation of the new tariff system "Tarmed" (Nr. 1017). According to this regulation, general practitioners have to include a detailed code on all bills since January 1st, 2004. Health insurers thereby gain access to particularly sensitive patient information. Data protection officers have criticized "Tarmed" for years and warn of the creation of «transparent patients». The innovative start-up MAILPROFILER AG received an honorary mentioning for its system to distribute «bugged» email messages (Nr. 3482). The system enables the company to monitor client behaviour without their knowledge. A further honorary note went to the direct mail company AWZ AG, which - according to company-own statements - stores up to 50 characteristics of 4.5 million residential addressees (equating to 1.25 addresses per household) (Nr. 3568) -- personal data have become a commercial good of growing importance! The Swiss Football Federation SFV (Nr. 2044), Zurich Financial Services (Nr. 3464) and Khamsin Security GmbH (Nr. 3481) narrowly failed a top ranking. The trophy for workplace surveillance was introduced this year. The ZÜRICH MUNICIPAL POLICE out-performed the other seven competitors. Their management had secretly monitored the email communication of several employees (Nr. 3425). The IT SERVICES OF THE CANTON OF ST GALL came second for their new «procedure regarding the use of information technology infrastructure in the State Administration», which enacts that internet use of employees may be monitored and analyzed on a per-person level by higher-level authorities at any time - even in the absence of any allegations! (Nr. 3115). A consolation prize went to the retailer PICKPAY AG. The company has asked job applicants for disproportionate declarations of personal health as well as criminal charges and debts (Nr. 3439). The two largest Swiss retailers, COOP and MIGROS, have similar procedures. All three companies announced reviews of their questionnaires. This year's sought-after «lifetime award» for particularly insistent, life-long snitching went to the Lucerne-based farmer and national councillor (CVP) JOSEF LEU (Nr. 3577). As an MP he has been advocating a strengthening of the armed forces and the police since 1991. He e.g. demands the implementation of a «Federal Security Police», an intensification of the «federal law for the maintenance of inner security» (BWIS, SR 120) as well as a consequent extension of precautionary surveillance. His party colleague Jean-Luc Vez from Fribourg only came second (Nr. 2994). The director of the Federal Office of Police (fedpol) also demands a tightening of the BWIS legislation and is cultivating co-operation with police and intelligence agencies of the EU and the USA. Contrary to the four negative prizes, the «Winkelried award» goes to individuals who show outstanding resistance against increases of surveillance and control. Two candidates were nominated this year: DANIELE JENNI is a solicitor from Berne and appears for marginalized individuals, which are frequently expelled from the inner City by the Bernese Municipal Police (Nr. 3544) -- according to Jenni a severe violation of the base right to free assembly. In another case Jenni, together with 37 other persons, filed a claim against the cantonal police of Grisons, as they had registered more than 1000 demonstrators in January 2004 in Landquart, in the context of the World Economic Forum WEF, and forwarded the data to the federal police, despite of claims to the contrary. BEAT SCHAUB is a general practitioner from Binningen BL (Nr. 3479). He vehemently opposes the "Tarmed" health tariff system (see above) and shows that there is no legal basis for its implementation. In order to maintain patient and physician confidentiality, patient data should only be forwarded in anonymized forms. Consequently, Schaub demands the immediate annihilation of all previously collected personal TARMED data. On the occasion of the award ceremony, Daniele Jenni was acclaimed «Principal Winkelried of the Year 2004» by the audience. ** Honorary list Among the previous recipients of a Swiss «Big Brother Award» are the companies Swisscom, Roche, SWICA, Orange and Q-Sys, Federal Councillor Samuel Schmid, The Zürich Cantonal Police, the Conference of the Cantonal Police Commanding Officers, as well as ominous «Club de Berne». The complete list can be found in our «Hall of Shame»: ** Internationally co-ordinated campaign The «Big Brother Awards» campaign is internationally networked: The first award ceremony was organized in the year 1998 by «Privacy International» in the United Kingdom. Since then, more than 40 further ceremonies have taken place in 16 countries, among others in the USA, Austria, Germany, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Japan, Finland, Danemark, Spain, Australia and New Zealand. Further events are in preparation (see http://www.bigbrotherawards.org). The bestowal of the Swiss Big Brother Awards 2004 is jointly organized by the «Swiss Internet User Group SIUG», the «Archiv Schnüffelstaat Schweiz» and «//syndikat - The Online Trade Union», in co-operation with «pulp - platform for digital culture» and «zusammenstoss», Lucerne, and is supported by the Zurich-based cultural Centre «Rote Fabrik», the «trash.net» society, the Trade Unions GBI and comedia, and the data protection officer of The City of Zürich. Media partners are «WOZ Die Wochenzeitung» and «Le Courrier». Further information and press photographs: ===== Contacts: ===== mailto:info@bigbrotherawards.ch http://www.bigbrotherawards.ch -- General Big Brother Awards questions: +41 79-655.46.84 (Thomas Bader, Daniel Boos) -- «Workplace award» questions (//syndikat): +41 76-520.16.26 (9 - 22 hrs) -- «pulp - platform for digital culture» questions +41 41-360.93.77 (Christine Weber) ===== Links: ===== http://www.bigbrotherawards.ch http://www.bigbrotherawards.ch/2004/event/ http://www.bigbrotherawards.org (international) http://www.siug.ch (Swiss Internet User Group) http://www.raben-net.ch/ficherman/ (Archiv Schnüffelstaat Schweiz) http://www.syndikat.ch (//syndikat - the online trade union) http://www.rotefabrik.ch/konzept/ http://www.trash.net http://www.woz.ch http://www.pulpnet.ch (plattform pulp)