The Dutch Big Brother Awards were presented in front of a 300 person audience in Amsterdam on the 11th of October. With the Awards the person, company, governmental institution and initiative are rewarded for damaging the privacy of citizens in 2003 the most. The 4 winners of 2003 are: minister of Justice Piet Hein Donner; several major lawyer firms; the Immigration and Naturalisation Service and the legal proposal to introduce compulsory identification.

According to the jury minister Donner seems to have a personal mission in the destruction of the right to privacy. The minister was awarded for a long list of proposals and determined efforts to shift the balance between privacy and safety. The minister is in particular responsible for the law proposal for compulsory identification for all persons starting at 14 years.

The second Big Brother Award is awarded to several Dutch lawyer firms for using the services of investigation office Mariendijk. Under false pretence the office managed to extract very privacy-sensitive information from banks and social security offices.

The Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) deserves the Award with the storage of all e-mails of all employees for an undetermined period of time.

Finally the jury crowned the legal proposal for compulsory identification with an Orwellian Award. This proposal requires all persons to permanently wear ID from the age of 14. People unable to immediately show a valid passport, drivers license or identity card risk a fine of 2250 euro.

Since Privacy International presented the first Big Brother Awards in 1998, an international tradition has begun. By now, more than 40 ceremonies have taken place in 15 different countries. In the next two weeks several Award ceremonies are scheduled in Germany, Spain, Austria, Switzerland and Hungary (see agenda below).

Dutch Big Brother Awards
http://www.bigbrotherawards.nl/index_uk.html

Big Brother Awards International
http://www.bigbrotherawards.org/