Summary: In this year two “lucky winners” achieve awards in this category: the members of the Fourth Parliament of the State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for legislation that allows eavesdropping and sound recording in public space. And the Federal Conference of the Ministers of the Interior for their decision to install a centralised anti-terror data-base.

Summary: This year the Philips company accomplishes the BigBrotherAward in “Technology” for the specification that CD burners write their unique serial number on the CD and thus facilitate tracking of the storage medium to the burner.

Summary: The Generalstaatsanwaltschaft (High Office of Public Prosecution) of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, represented through Mr Erhard Rex earns a BigBrotherAward for the extensive search for witnesses (who were then treated like suspects) through locating mobile phones. This is the first massive search of mobile phone cells. Phone companies were forced to disclose complete connection data for a whole region. Data protectors of the state of Schleswig-Holstein who wanted to investigate this case were denied access to the related police files.

Summary: The organising committee for the soccer World Cup within the German football association (Deutscher Fussballbund, DFB) - represented by Mr Franz Beckenbauer earns a BigBrotherAward for the inquisitorial questions asked in ticket application forms, for their plans of sharing customer data with FIFA and its sponsors, and for the use of RFID spychips in the tickets and thus the attempt to make this surveillance technology acceptable - directly benefiting a World Cup sponsor (RFID producer Philips).

Summary: The Government of the state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), represented through the state's Prime Minister Mr Christian Wulff earns a BigBrotherAward for destroying the data protection authority in Lower Saxony. The supervision of data protection in the economy is to be handed over to Lower Saxony's Ministry of the Interior as of 1 Jan 2006. This undermines proceedings by the EU-Commission recently opened against Germany for breach of contract through disregard of the EU data protection directive. The EU directive requires total independence of data protection supervision.

Summary: Mr Otto Schily, former Federal Minister of the Interior of Germany earns a BigBrotherAward for the current undemocratic introduction of the biometric passport, the technology of which is still immature and unsafe and which causes the whole population to be subjected to a police identification procedure normally applied to criminals. Mr Schily will receive the Big Brother Award also for his Lifetime Achievement, namely for the extension of the German and European surveillance system, to the severe cost of civic and freedom rights, and for his persistent efforts at eroding data protection under the guises of public security and fight against terror.

Summary: "Saatgut Treuhand Verwaltungs GmbH", represented through CEO Mr Dirk Otten earns a BigBrotherAward for collecting data about farmers, for taking thousands of farmers unwilling to give their data to court, for procuring customers’ data from cooperatives and clandestine test-shopping at farmers’ shops. The farmers were suspected by Saatgut Treuhand to use potatos or other crops from their own harvests for next year’s plantings. For establishing a centralised control structure for the collection of fines as a service to the seed industry.

Summary: The Minister of the Interior of the state of Hesse, Mr Volker Bouffier, earns a BigBrotherAward for the "preventive" locating and tapping of mobile phones; for DNA-analysing child delinquents under 14 for use in future prosecution; for authorising Hessian police to scan car licence numbers even when there is no suspicion of a crime; for using video surveillance while checking identities of members of the public.

Summary: The Primary school "Grundschule Ennigloh" near Bünde and the banks "Volksbank Bad Oeynhausen Herford eG" and "Sparkasse Herford" earn a BigBrotherAward for sharing names of school beginners with the said banks for use in advertising ("Starter Account") without parents’ consent.

Summary: The BigBrotherAward in the category Technology goes to a number of very eager surveillance fetishists for the creeping degradation of citizens to objects of continual compulsory observation and playing down the consequences of ubiquitous surveillance.

Summary: The BigBrotherAward in the "Business and Consumer Protection" category goes to Tchibo for the practice of forwarding their customers' data to the marketing company Arvato / AZ Direct

Armex earns a BigBrotherAward for their "Track Your Kid" product - as a representative of several companies that offer child monitoring services.

Summary: The Big Brother Award in the "Health and Social Issues" category is awarded to the Federal Minister for Health and Social Security, Ms Ulla Schmidt for the bill for the reform of the national health insurance, which came into force on the 1st of January 2004.

Summary: The Big Brother Award in the "Industrial Relations" category is won by the Lidl Stiftung ("Foundation"), Co., in Neckarsulm, represented by the founder and "godfather" of the group, Dieter Schwarz for the almost slave-like treatment of its employees.

The Dean of Paderborn University Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Nikolaus Risch for the video surveillance of lecture halls and computer rooms in "his" university

Canon Germany - An ID number storied in photocopying machines is invisibly printed on *all* copies. As each copier has an individual number, the source of a copy can be traced. This is sold as a feature to protect against forgeries of bank notes, cheques, etc.

Summary: The German Internet Service Provider T-Online AG receives an BigBrotherAward for storing the IP adresses of customers with flat rate contracts.

Summary: The Future Store Initiative, Metro AG receives an BigBrotherAward for their "Future Store Initiative" in which the Metro Group is propagating the use of transponders or so-called RFIDs ("Radio Frequency Identification" devices) in supermarkets.

Summary: The government of the USA earns a BigBrotherAward for the coercion of European and especially German airlines into granting various US authorities access to the vast amount of data related to the bookings of all passengers travelling to or via the United States.

Summary: The GEZ ("fee withdrawal centre") earns a BigBrotherAward for their untiring engagement in the relentless detection of public radio and TV licence fee dodgers.

Summary: The Federal States Bavaria, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and Thuringia earn a BigBrotherAward for their efforts, riding on the issue of fighting terrorism, to tighten their states' police laws, allowing for drastic restrictions of elementary basic rights and liberties affecting a large number of unsuspicious people.

Summary: The winner of the regional prize of this year's Big Brother Award is the Interior Senator (minister) of the federal (city) state of Berlin, Dr. Ehrhart Körting for his more than dubious justification for the use of the so-called "silent SMS" by Berlin police.

Summary: The Deutsche Post-Shop-GmbH earns a BigBrotherAward for questionable components of working contracts with the employees of post agencies.

Peter Wedde, expert for employment law, will highlight dangerous trends and trend-setting developments in a live interview. Ostensibly there were no major scandals about spying on employees in the last few years, but Peter Wedde points out why workers still face increasing surveillance and what the consequences are. [A transcription of the interview will be published later.]