Proctorio GmbH receives the BigBrotherAwards 2021 for its offer of “fully automatic exam supervision”, which supposedly facilitates total control of students in online exams. During an exam, the AI-based software is said to be able to recognise eye movements of students that point to an attempt at cheating, which then raises an automatic alarm.

Rolf Gössner. who was a member of the BigBrotherAwards jury from the start, has retired from the jury earlier this year. He gave this speech at the gala to say farewell to the audience.

The BigBrotherAward 2021 in the category “Public Intellectual” is awarded to the philosopher and vice chairperson of the German Ethics Council, Julian Nida-Rümelin, for his untenable claim, repeatedly made in public, that “data protection” had hindered the fight to contain the Corona pandemic and was responsible for thousands of deaths.

Google receives the BigBrotherAward 2021 for recently exposed large-scale manipulations of the Internet advertising market, for starving creators and media and for dispossessing our digital personalities.

The BigBrotherAward in 2021 in the category Health goes to Doctolib GmbH, Berlin. In particular, Doctolib offers the scheduling of doctor’s appointments via its platform. These data are processed in violation of confidentiality obligations and are used commercially for marketing purposes according to their privacy agreement.