Winners

The BigBrotherAward in the category Politics goes to the Minister-Presidents of the 16 German Federal States for establishing the Joint Licence Fee Service of [Germany’s public broadcasters] ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio…

There were some “lucky losers” that didn’t make it to a full award speech, but which should not be left out completely. We also take a look at the current state of things of an award winner from 2011, Facebook.

The BigBrotherAward 2013 in the category “Government and Administration” goes to the Federal Police, represented by its president Dieter Romann, for police identity checks in which people are singled out of crowds on the basis of…

The BigBrotherAward 2013 in the Economics category goes to Deutsche Post Adress GmbH & Co KG. Millions of people in Germany each year supply data about their addresses and house moves to Deutsche Post, in thousands of post offices…

The BigBrotherAward 2013 in the Category „Global Data Acquisition“ goes to Google Inc., Mountain View, USA. Under the guise of a search engine and other free-of-charge services, such as Maps, Docs and YouTube, the advertising…

The BigBrotherAward 2013 in the “Workplace” category goes to Apple Retail GmbH in Munich, for their comprehensive video surveillance of employees. The company operates the Apple Stores in Germany. Inside sources say that not only…

The BigBrotherAward 2012 in the “Communication” category goes to “the Cloud” as a trend that deprives users of control over their own data. To move address books and photos – in other words, other people’s data – or archives…

The BigBrotherAward in the category “Economy” goes to Mr Markus Hankammer, CEO of Brita GmbH, for the firm’s water vending machines, marketed under the name “Schoolwater”. These machines deliver water only when a school child taps…

The BigBrotherAward 2012 in the “Workplace” category goes to Bofrost (a German-based manufacturer and home delivery service for frozen foods), for unlawfully prying into data on a computer belonging to the staff council. Bofrost…

The BigBrotherAward in the category “Technology” goes to Gamma Group, represented in Germany by Gamma International in Munich, personally by its general manager Stephan Oelkers, for their software “FinFisher”. Gamma advertises the…

The BigBrotherAward 2012 in the “Consumer Protection” category goes to Blizzard Entertainment, for various violations of privacy in their online games, such as World of Warcraft. Using recorded data such as time spent playing…

The BigBrotherAward 2012 in the “Politics” category goes to the Federal Minister of the Interior, Dr. Hans-Peter Friedrich (CSU, the Christian democrats of Bavaria) for establishing a cyber defence centre without authorisation…