US Big Brother Awards 2005 Contenders
28/03/2005
Privacy International
The 2005 US Big Brother Awards
ChoicePoint and the Federal Trade Commission are leading contenders for US awards.
Awards ceremony will name & shame top privacy invaders
28th March 2005
For immediate release
Public nominations for the 7th annual US Big Brother Awards have decisively moved ChoicePoint to the position of lead contender for this year’s shameful “Lifetime Menace” award.
ChoicePoint has achieved notoriety because of its core business of selling personal information on tens of millions of people. The company recently admitted that it had sold personal information on 145,000 people to a criminal ring involved in identity theft. (see http://www.epic.org/privacy/choicepoint/)
In the Big Brother Awards ceremony – now an annual event throughout the world - distinctive statues of a golden boot stomping on a human head are presented to the government agencies and officials, companies and initiatives that have done the most to invade personal privacy throughout the previous year. The "Lifetime Menace" award is presented to organizations that systematically invade privacy.
The Big Brother Awards are organised by Privacy International, a non-profit watchdog formed in 1990 to monitor surveillance and privacy invasion across the world.
In 2001 ChoicePoint received the “Greatest Corporate Invader” award. If ChoicePoint beats the field this year the company will automatically be shortlisted for Lifetime Menace, where it could join the ranks of previous winners such as the National Security Agency, TransUnion and Admiral John Poindexter.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has also featured strongly in public nominations. Privacy and consumer groups have consistently criticized the Commission for promoting poor privacy practices.
Another major data broker, Acxiom, is also a strong contender for an award. The company lobbied to water down key federal privacy laws immediately after the September 11, terrorist attacks. (see http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=16224&c=207)
Several other well-known organizations and initiatives have been shortlisted for the awards. The Transport Security Administration, Google’s Gmail service, the US-VISIT fingerprinting and data system and Secure Flight all feature prominently. The Real ID Act has also been nominated extensively because of fears that it could be the forerunner of a national identity card.
Nominations have also been flowing in for a host of smaller and less well known organizations. Brittan Elementary School in Northern California has been nominated for its attempt to force students to wear mandatory ID cadges containing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) devices. Children were to have been forced to wear the badges around their necks at all times.
Critics of the plan described the monitoring and tracking scheme as “comparable to the tracking of cattle, shipment pallets, or very dangerous criminals in high-security prisons.”
Privacy International’s Director, Simon Davies, described the nominations as “highlighting endemic privacy threats throughout the US”.
“People are being seduced, forced or intimidated into giving up their right to privacy on grounds that are often false or specious” he said. “Attacks on the right to privacy are aggressive and constant”.
Davies warned that the US may be “sleepwalking into a future of total surveillance” and urged all Americans to remain vigilant about their rights.
The four award categories are:
* The Most Invasive Proposal
* Greatest Corporate Invader
* Worst Public Official or Department
* Lifetime Menace Award
The judges panel for the 2005 awards are:
* Evan Hendricks, Publisher of Privacy Times
* Chris Hoofnagle, Associate Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
* Ed Mierzwinski, Consumer Program Director of PIRG
* Stephanie Perrin, President of Digital Discretion
* Bruce Schneier, founder and CTO of Counterpane Internet Security, Inc.
* Bob Ellis Smith, Editor of the Privacy Jounral
* Nadine Strossen, President of the ACLU
NOTES FOR EDITORS
The Big Brother Awards are now in their eighth year, and have been established as an annual event in seventeen countries. Further information can be found at www.bigbrotherawards.org and on the PI website at http://www.privacyinternational.org/bigbrother/
The initiator of the awards, Privacy International, was founded in 1990, and campaigns on a wide range of privacy issues across the world.
The 7th US awards will take place on April 14th at the 15th Computers, Freedom & Privacy conference in Seattle. Further conference information at www.cfp2005.org More information on the US BBA’s at http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd[347]=x-347-161639
Related:
PI Announces U.S. Big Brother Awards winners for 2005
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