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4th Annual Big Brother Awards Held in France
The 4th edition of the Big Brother Awards was held in Paris on Wednesday, February 4, 2004. Every year PrivacyÊInternational and other human rights groups across the world present the Big Brother Awards to government agencies, private companies and individuals who have excelled in the violation of our privacy. Here are the final results of the French Big Brother Awards 2004:

  • State & Public Figures: Justice and Home ministers Dominique PERBEN + Nicolas SARKOZY, co-sponsors of the "law of justice adaptation to organized crime", that breaches fondamental rights and defense powers, extends wiretaps, authorizes remote audio-video surveillance, extends DNA database to ordinary crimes...
  • Private Sector Organizations: French Federation of Insurance Companies (FFSA), for its long-running policy to get access to medical records, urging the end of anonymization of such data and a closer "partnership" between patients and insurance companies. - Pascal Negre, Universal France chief, was then given the "doping award" (as got Sarkozy last year) for its continuous lobbying in Parliament and the media to build tougher EUCD-like schemes in France.
  • Local Administration & Urban Policies: Catholic Schools in Angers, for their biometric-based devices (fingerprints) instaled at their school restaurants - children are screened every day to have food, and can be excluded if the parents have not paid on time.
  • Technologies & Systems: RFID tags, especially those sold by the French high-tech company Inside Contastless - based in Aix en Provence (South - near Marseille). These long-range RFIDs have been sold in China, officially to counter fraud in public transports, but ultimatly used inside... official Students Cards.
  • The EU "Lifetime Menace Award" went to French defense electronics conglomerate THALES, who was selected last year for its contract with the Chinese government on a 1 billion-worth smart cards deal to be used in next generation IDs. Thales won also for its internet surveilance schemes, smart video systems, biometric devices, and also for its last "SHIELD" concept - a homeland security "package", unveiled at the last MILIPOL trade show in Paris. Thales is pleased to say it has been choosen to implement the cyber police network of Brazilian city Porto Alegre, where World Social Forum delegates met last time in January 2003.
  • The "Orwell EU" went to the JHA Council of Ministers. For its long list of democratic threats passed through security measures in the wake of 9/11, especially the data retention directive of 2002, the Eurodac and Schengen database, biometric IDs in passports, its ability to use "3rd pillar" matters - of which the EU has no official authority - to bypass Parliament and democratic debate.
  • The EU Voltaire prize - positive award - was given to a small group of public educators in Chambery (Savoie), that opposed a recent cooperation signed by their employee and the national police; it should oblige them to report every suspected felony from the kids they are supposed to look at during their difficult teenhood.

List of All Award Winners (in french) »

About Privacy International's Big Brother Awards »

February 2004

 
 

 
 
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