In the Mood for BBA

Praise is due this year to IT consultant Jens Ernst: He publicised careless practices in handling sensitive patient data. In the traditional “reprimands and honourable mentions” slot, we still have plenty of material for the negative side, such as mood trackers and Berlin’s transport company BVG. The actual BigBrotherAwards go to the “Technical Committee CYBER” of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, Precire Technologies, German news website ZEIT Online, Ancestry.com, to workplace surveillance and the Hessian Interior Minister Peter Beuth.

The (unfortunate) Awardees

Authorities & Administration (2019)

Peter Beuth

The Hessian Minister of the Interior, Peter Beuth, receives the BigBrotherAward 2019 in the “Authorities & Administration” Category for the acquisition and use of an analysis software by Palantir, a company close to the CIA that…

Laudator.in
Biotechnology (2019)

Ancestry.com

The company Ancestry.com receives the BigBrotherAward 2019 in the Biotechnology Category for enticing people with an interest in genealogy into submitting saliva samples. Ancestry.com sells genetic data to commercial…

Laudator.in
Communication (2019)

Communication: Precire Technologies

The company Precire of Aachen, Germany receives the BigBrotherAward 2019 in the “Communications” Category for the speech analysis software. Precire is not only used to preselect job candidates, but also by call centres to analyse…

Laudator.in
Consumer Protection (2019)

ZEIT Online

The ZEIT newspaper’s online presence receives the BigBrotherAward 2019 in the “Consumer Protection” Category. Firstly, for using advertising trackers and the Facebook Pixel. Second, for the use of Google services in the “Germany…

Laudator.in
Reprimands & Commendation (2019)

Apps, Health Data, Cameras

Reprimands in 2019 go to mood tracker apps, Berlin’s Public Transport Company and the Edeka-Center supermarket in Porta Westfalica. A commendation is given to the physicians’ association Freie Ärzteschaft together with IT service…

Jury

Portraitaufnahme von Rolf Gössner.

Dr. Rolf Gössner

Internationale Liga für Menschenrechte (ILFM)
Prof. Dr. Peter Wedde am Redner.innenpult der BigBrotherAwards 2021.

Prof. Dr. Peter Wedde

Frankfurt University of Applied Science
Dr. Thilo Weichert am Redner.innepult der BigBrotherAwards 2021.

Dr. Thilo Weichert

DVD, Netzwerk Datenschutzexpertise
Rena Tangens am Redner.innenpult der BigBrotherAwards 2021.

Rena Tangens

Digitalcourage
Frank Rosengart am Redner.innenpult der BigBrotherAwards 2021.

Frank Rosengart

Chaos Computer Club (CCC)
padeluun am Redner.innenpult der BigBrotherAwards 2021.

padeluun

Digitalcourage

Updates to the Awards 2019

Unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to translate our updates into English.

About BigBrotherAwards

In a compelling, entertaining and accessible format, we present these negative awards to companies, organisations, and politicians. The BigBrotherAwards highlight privacy and data protection offenders in business and politics, or as the French paper Le Monde once put it, they are the “Oscars for data leeches”.

Organised by (among others):

BigBrother Awards International (Logo)

BigBrotherAwards International

The BigBrotherAwards are an international project: Questionable practices have been decorated with these awards in 19 countries so far.