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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 interior secret service known as “Protection of the Constitution” receives a Lifetime BigBrotherAward just as it reaches the official retirement age, for 65 years of violating civil and privacy rights. The “Protection of the Constitution” is recognised in particular for monitoring and stigmatising groups and individuals that are critical of the state and society, for its uncontrollable system of informers, for hopeless entanglement with murderous neo-Nazi circles and for covering up illegal practices. Despite its history of scandals, the “Protection of the Constitution” offices are not being reigned in, but instead upgraded and equipped with further intelligence capabilities.

The Generali insurance company is awarded the BigBrotherAward 2016 in the category Consumer Protection because it promises advantages to the insured if they use an app to transfer their fitness data and shopping behaviour to the insurance company, which in turn tranfers the data to a credit-point system in South Africa. This will lead to loss of solidarity and runs counter to the basic principle of our social system.

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 BigBrotherAward 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.

The BigBrotherAward in the “Politics” category goes to the Federal Minister of Finance, Mr Peer Steinbrück, for introducing a life-long Tax ID number for all taxable persons, which bears an eerie resemblance to the unconstitutional concept of a personal code number.

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 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 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.

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.