(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
The Italian Big Brother Awards for 2008 were presented on 10 May 2008 during an e-privacy convention in Florence. The Italian jury is formed by 6 jurors who have to vote over 26 nominations, out of which 5 are for the positive award.
The public institution award was received by the Ministry of Economics for its very ample checking instruments. The institution is not the one to prove the citizens are breaking the law, instead it requires the tax payers to prove they are on the right side of the law. With the excuse of fighting tax evasion, the institution has been recently empowered to create mass personal (bank, health etc.) data filing, an obvious and useless violation of the citizens' privacy.
The award for the worst private company was received by Yahoo for the intensive monitoring of its users. Yahoo has provided the Italian Government with data of its users. In the case of the Chinese journalist Shi Tao, during a hearing in front of a US Congress commission on 11 November 2007, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang has admitted and apologized for the action and for having previously denying the fact.
The most invasive technology was considered to be the DNA Bank of the RIS (the Scientific Investigation Division of the "carabinieri") of Parma which was created "quietly" without any specific normative act. No details are known about the genetic database and there is an obvious risk of abusing the respective data.
TV journalist Bruno Vespa was awarded the "Boot in the Mouth" price for having dealt superficially and therefore misinforming people about the Internet and new technologies. During a broadcast on 21 February 2008, as in other previous occasions, he expressed alarming ideas on the impact on privacy and the education of young people of the Internet in general and of the new technologies.
The life time award was received by Franco Frattini, the former EU Commissioner for Justice and Internal Affairs and since 8 May 2008 the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, for having spread an idea of security that involves "monitoring and censuring dangerous words".
"Winston Smith - Privacy hero" positive awarded was given to Autistici/Inventati team for its entire activity and for having provided, voluntarily and free-of-charge, for years, communication services that have observed privacy more than the commercial or institutional organisations.
Autistici/Inventati is the hero of privacy (only in Italian, 12.05.2008)
http://punto-informatico.it/2281258/PI/News/Autistici-Inventati--egrav...
Big Brother Award Italy 2008 (only in Italian, 10.05.2008)
http://bba.winstonsmith.info/
EDRi-gram: ENDitorial: "Frattinising" isn't the only threat (26.09.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.18/frattinising