BIG BROTHER AWARDS
"The Devil is in the Default"
6/10/16 - KVS BRUSSELS

A Report

And the winner is...

ABOUT BBA

Every year a person, an enterprise, a government agency or a measure is awarded the “prestigious” Big Brother Award. This award is named after the character in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984).

As a yearly tradition the Flemish League for Human rights and her partners hand out the Big Brother Awards in Flanders. Who wins this shameful price of biggest privacy-offender of the year? A professional jury as well as the broad public (you!) decide who receives the award.

Why BBA’s? Even though privacy is a fundamental human right, we see the number of privacy-issues grow everyday. Raising awareness on this matter is one of the main goals of the Flemish League for Human rights.

During the event, before the awards are handed out, we organize ‘privacy salons’: animated debates on the 4 nominees. Different opinions on the nomination are aired and discussed by defenders, contestants and the public, supervised by a moderator. Everything about the evening you can find here.

THE 4 NOMINEES

Vote for your favorite candidate!

Facebook

Facebook

EDRi

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Dataretentiewet 2.0

The Belgian Data Retention law 2.0

PROGRESS Lawyers Network

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Cash is not accepted

No cash, no privacy?

Datapanik

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img02

See all, hear all, say nothing about criminal investigations?

Flemish Association of Journalists

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nominees

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debates

Your opinion matters

Share it with us on October 6!

NOT NOMINATED

But definitely worth an honorable mention!

Niet genomineerd

Not nominated

The Flemish League for Human Rights

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Privacy salons

Join the experts in a debate at the Privacy Salons during the Big Brother Awards 2016.

Facebook 007 (nominated by EDRi)
Facebook follows you where ever you go, logged in or not, through their own pages but also by ‘like’buttons on other pages and through apps like WhatsApp. Big Brother²! In addition, it seems you have to be an expert to change your standardsettings because it requires a huge amount of time and knowledge.

 

See all, hear all, say nothing about criminal investigations (nominated by the Flemish Association of Journalists)
The European Court of Human Rights repeatedly decided that press and public should be able to take note of (at least important) criminal investigations. Yet some politicians plan to supervise the judicial secrecy more severely. Will civil ignorance be the standard?

No cash, no privacy? (nominated by Datapanik)
Cash is becoming more and more eradicated, with no anonymous alternatives to replace it. With the disappearance of banknotes and coins, so does our privacy - while banks, companies and governments gain access to the most intimate details of our life.

 

The Belgian retention law 2.0 (nominated by Progress Lawyers Network)
Since the 4th of may 2016 we have a new retention law. Internet providers and telecom companies are obliged to save all our communication data, in case the secret service or the judiciairy need it. Last year however, the constitutional court annihilated a similar law. The current, new law puts our personal data at risk all over again and turns every civilian into possible suspect.

Partners

This edition was made possible through a constructive collaboration between these partners: