The BigBrotherAward 2020 in the “Authorities & Administration” Category goes to the Interior Minister of the Federal State of Brandenburg, Michael Stübgen, and his predecessor Karl-Heinz Schröter for permanently storing vehicle number plates. More than 40 million records containing vehicle information have been permanently stored in Brandenburg for many years using the so-called “recording mode” of the KESY system even though the Federal Constitutional Court has set very clear boundaries for that.

The education minister of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, Susanne Eisenmann, receives the BigBrotherAward in the “Education” category because she intends to let Microsoft run essential services of the state’s digital education platform.

The company BrainCo receives the BBA in the “Education” category for its EEG headbands, which can allegedly measure students’ attention by their brain activity. The attention level is signalled by an LED on the headband and radioed to the teacher’s computer. In the US and China this technology is already used in classrooms. The second awardee is the Leibniz Science Campus Tübingen, which is trialling similar headbands in Germany, combined with eye tracking. That is dressage rather than education.

The conference of interior ministers of the German federal states receives the BigBrotherAward 2020 in the “Historical Amnesia” Category for their intention to create a life-long personal identification number based on the tax identification number. Such personal identification numbers were used in two dictatorships on German soil: in Nazi Germany and in the East German GDR – for registration, repression and in the end for extermination. They violate the spirit of the constitution.

Tesla Inc., represented by Tesla Germany GmbH in Munich, receives the BigBrotherAward 2020 in the “Mobility” Category for marketing cars that extensively and perpetually surveil their passengers and car surroundings. The data obtained is constantly analysed and can be used for any purpose.

Gerhart Baum has kindly sent us an opening address recorded as a video.

The BigBrotherAward 2020 in the Category “Politics” goes to The German Federal Government (supported by the coalition of the parties CDU/CSU and SPD), represented by the Chancellor, Angela Merkel (CDU), for its joint legal and political responsibility for the US drone war, which violates international law and is conducted via the satellite and data relay facility at the US airbase at Ramstein (in the German region of the Palatinate). It is here, on German soil, where weaponised drone operations in the Middle and Greater Middle East and on the African continent are controlled.

H&M Hennes & Mauritz B.V. & Co. KG in Hamburg receives the BigBrotherAward 2020 in the “Workplace” category for the long-standing, devious and illegal processing of employee data at the H&M customer centre in Nuremberg. H&M has collected data concerning health problems of employees, as well as those of family members and colleagues. This information was gathered by H&M team leaders from friendly conversations at the workplace or on a coffee break.

For the first time, our audience was given the opportunity to answer the traditional question which awardee they had found particularly “impressive, surprising, shocking, or outrageous” online as well as in the hall. Here is the result.

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 has consequently gained access to the highly sensitive data networks of Hessian Police. With this software, mass data from police and external sources can automatically be interrelated, analysed and evaluated.

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 pharmaceutical researchers, creates a data source prerequisite for genetic screening by the police and enables covert paternity tests, potentially causing familiy drama.

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 callers’ emotions.

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 Talks” project. This leads to individuals’ political opinions being stored in US servers. Thirdly, for having the succesor project “My Country Talks“ financed by Google. This Faustian pact with one of the biggest data leeches damages journalistic independence.

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 provider Jens Ernst.

The “Technical Committee CYBER” of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) receives the BigBrotherAward 2019 in the “Technology” Category for its efforts to establish a predetermined breaking point in the new technical standard for encryption on the Internet. The planned standard “ETS” (formerly “eTLS”) will enable government agencies to decrypt intercepted communications.

The BigBrotherAward 2018 in the “Administration” Category goes to Cevisio Software und Systeme GmbH & Co. KG in Torgau, Germany, for their software Cevisio Quartiermanagement (QMM), which is used in refugee shelters. This software can be used to register and store movements to the shelter, movements within the shelter, the handing out of meals, medical checks such as X-rays, blood and stool tests, family relationships, religious affiliation and ethnicity and many other details. The collected data facilitate a total control of the refugees.

In our new venue we continued the tradition of asking our audience which award they had found particularly “impressive, surprising, shocking, or outrageous”.

Amazon receives the BigBrotherAward 2018 in the “Consumer Protection” category for its nosy, impertinent, all-too clever and gossipy bugging operation in a can by the name of Alexa. It is well known that Alexa’s speech recordings are processed in the Cloud. What is award-worthy is the fact that these recordings are also stored in the Cloud and that they can be played back even months later. That makes it possible to monitor everyone present in the home, and it is unclear who else is given access to the recordings.

The parliamentary groups for the Christian-Democratic and the Green parties in the state parliament of Hesse receive the BigBrotherAward 2018 in the Politics category for their plans for a new domestic intelligence law. The draft by the “black-green coalition” contains an accumulation of grave surveillance powers that facilitate severe interferences with fundamental rights: So-called state trojans are to be used to secretly infect and investigate “suspect” computers, employees of projects to further democratic society are to be screened by intelligence agencies and, in a legal novelty, criminal undercover agents are to be exempted from persecution. All in all, this is a severe attack on democracy, on the rule of law, and on fundamental rights.

The BigBrotherAward 2018 in the “PR and Marketing” Category goes to the idea of a “Smart City”. The advertising concept of a “Smart City” is used by tech companies to try to sell the idea of a “safe city” to municipal administrations: A city, covered in sensors, under total surveillance, remote-controlled and commercialised. “Smart Cities” reduce their citizens to mere consumers, change consumers into data sources and our democracy into a privatised service.

Microsoft Germany, represented by Sabine Bendiek, Chairwoman of the Management Board, receives the BigBrotherAward 2018 in the Technology category for implanting telemetry (i.e. the transmission of diagnostic data) in Windows 10 that is almost impossible to deactivate. Even skilled users will hardly be able to stop this data from being transmitted.

The company “Soma Analytics” receives the BigBrotherAward 2018 in the “Workplace” category for their efforts to propagate their health app “Kelaa” and the “Kelaa Dashboard” among the human resources departments of companies. The app monitors several parameters (such as excitement in the voice during phone calls) to spy on the users’ vital functions, in order to give employers indications of their employees’ mental state.

In 2017 we continued the cherished tradition of asking our audience at the end of the gala which award they found particularly “impressive, astonishing, shocking, revolting, …”. As last year we had a clear winner, although this time with a less than absolute majority (which it had received in 2016).

The German Federal Military (“Bundeswehr”) and the Federal Minister of Defence receive the 2017 Big Brother Award in the category Authorities and Administration for the military’s massive digital arms build-up including the new “Commando Cyberspace and Information Space” (“Kommando Cyber- und Informationsraum”, KdoCIR). This digital combat unit with a planned strength of 14,000 personnel is to prepare the German military for cyber warfare – including military cyber attacks on other countries’ IT systems and critical infrastructure. This militarisation of the Internet means the Federal Republic will take part in the global cyber arms race – without parliamentary control, without democratic oversight and without legal basis.

The company Prudsys receive the BigBrotherAward 2017 in the “Consumer Protection” category because they offer software that facilitates price discrimination. This software sets a price according to what it can find out about the individual customer, not according to a product’s value. As a consequence, two different people may have to pay a different price for the same product.

The German IT business association Bitkom receives the BigBrotherAward 2017 in the “Business” category for their uncritical promotion of big data, for obtrusively lobbying against data protection, and for being a front organisation for big US companies, who call the shots within Bitkom.

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich) receive the BigBrotherAward 2017 in the “Education” category for cooperating with the online learning provider Coursera. Data about students’ learning results constitutes a treasure trove which Coursera as a company reserves the right to exploit commercially.

The Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DİTİB) receives the BigBrotherAward 2017 in the “Politics” category because imams at DİTİB – acting for the Turkish government and its secret service MİT – are said to have conducted political espionage on DİTİB members and visitors, exposing them to persecution by the Turkish state.

Again this year we have had more nominations than we could recognise with an award. Some of those nominated deserve to be reprimanded at least.

The company PLT – Planung für Logistik & Transport GmbH (Planning for Logistics and Transport) receives the BigBrotherAward in the Workplace category for its PLT Staff Tracker. This device provides employers with real-time information on the whereabouts of their newspaper deliverers or postal carriers and how fast they are moving. Such comprehensive monitoring is degrading and pointless.