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On 19 May 2007, the two-day e-Privacy Conference in Florence hosted the Big Brother Awards Italy. The candidates for the awards were selected by a jury made of seven members.

The people's choice price "The People's lament" was won by far by Telecom Italia especially for the Tavaroli & Co case when a vast system of illegal eavesdropping of telephone conversations was discovered under the company's umbrella. The company's financial maneuvers and court actions have also contributed to its victory.

The Municipality of Milan won the award "The Worst Public Agency" for having installed several cameras in the city starting with public parks without giving any information on who would use the recorded data and for having sponsored a private initiative that proposes to the Milanese traders a 50% reimbursement for the installment of cameras on their sideway part.

The "Worst private corporation" award was received again by Telecom Italia for having illegally intercepted the conversations of millions of Italian citizens without any constitutional guaranty or requests from the secret services for emergency situations. In a best scenario, the management of the company had lost control over their employees' actions.

The award for "The Most Invasive Technology" was received by Google for the large amount of data retained. The company is considered the second most dangerous entity for privacy in the world. With the recent acquisition of DoubleClick.com, the advertising giant, its motto could now be "Don't be evil, buy the Devil!".

Paolo Gentiloni, the Minister of Communications received the "Boot in the Mouth" price. He considers that the eavesdropping is not a problem as long as unless such data is made public, especially by the journalists.

The "Lifetime Menace" award was adjudicated by the Italian Parliament for having approved a law against the illegal interceptions only when its members considered they were personally in danger. The Italian Parliament has proven lately that the defense of the privacy rights of the Italian citizens is no longer a focus.

The positive award "Winston Smith - Privacy Hero" was awarded this year to Representative Maurizio Turco who has presented the Winston Smith Project law against Data Retention, the only law proposal issued during the last year in favor of privacy.

The winners of Big Brother Italia (only in Italian, 21.05.2007)
http://punto-informatico.it/p.aspx?id=1994208

Big Brother Award Italia 2007
http://bba.winstonsmith.info/

E-privacy 2007 Conference proceedings (18-19.05.2007)
http://e-privacy.winstonsmith.info/interventi.html