From:	 info@bigbrotherawards.nl
To:	 info@bigbrotherawards.nl
Subject: Press release: Nominations for the Dutch Big Brother Awards 2002
Date:	 Fri, 8 Feb 2002 14:51:08 +0100

Press release

Friday 8 February 2002


Nominations for the Dutch Big Brother Awards 2002
-------------------------------------------------

Government agencies and private companies are increasingly violating
the privacy of people everywhere. Enormous amounts of personal data
are being collected, stored and processed - often illegally - in the
pursuit of more efficient marketing, greater social control, and more
powerful mechanisms for monitoring of the citizen.

Every year Privacy International and a growing number of affiliate
human rights groups present the Big Brother Awards to government
agencies, private companies and individuals who have excelled in the
violation of our privacy. The juries worldwide consist of lawyers,
academics, consultants, journalists, civil right activists.

The first Dutch Big Brother Awards will be held in Amsterdam on the
15th of February. Today the jury announces the nominations in four
categories: government, companies, persons and proposals. In every
category one winner will be awarded with an 'Orwell'. The Dutch Big
Brother Awards are organised by Bits of Freedom, a privacy and civil
liberties organisation based in Amsterdam.

Government

- The Royal wedding between Willem-Alexander and Maxima for security
screening of 50.000 people of which 18.000 were entered into a
database
- The National Institute of Public Health and Environment for storing
identifiable blood samples of 1,4 million children without parent
consent
- The Public Prosecution Service for wiretapping phone calls between
lawyers and their clients

Companies

- Spamming company abfab for spamming email and collecting email
addresses from webpages and newsgroups
- The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO)
for the development of the Automatic Aggression Detection video
processing software which was demonstrated by TNO using video footage
of the uprising against Milosevic in Belgrade.
- Peer-to-peer technology company Kazaa for delivering spyware to the
users of their software

Persons

- The Minister for Urban Policy and Integration of Ethnic minorities
Roger van Boxtel for promotion of compulsory identification and the
use biometric technology
- The State Secretary of Transport, Public Works and Water Management
Monique de Vries for breaking open an EU compromise on data retention
for telecommunication companies
- Member of Parliament Joop Wijn for promoting a national database of
fingerprints for all inhabitants of the Netherlands

Proposals

- The Government compulsory key escrow plans for Trusted Third
Parties, which undermine the security and confidentially of electronic
communications
- The Intelligence and Security Services Act for giving unprecedented
interception possibilities to the National Security Service
- The Commission Mevis for proposing far-reaching demands on banks,
insurance companies and telecommunication companies to track, store
and disclose customer data to law enforcement

For more information: http://www.bigbrotherawards.nl/


-------------------
Remark for the editor:
Contact:
Maurice Wessling
Tel +31 20 4686451
info@bigbrotherawards.nl