- Cars that report your every false move to local law authorities.
Huge databases with detailed information on every citizen. Companies that
only honor privacy guidelines when it's profitable for them to do so.
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- These were some of the winners of Privacy International's
sixth annual U.K. Big Brother Awards, announced Wednesday. The awards are
an annual attempt to publicly name and shame the government and private-sector
organizations that have done the most to invade personal privacy in Britain.
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- The winners of Worst Public Servant, Most Invasive Company,
Most Appalling Project, Most Heinous Government Organization and Lifetime
Menace were selected by a panel of experts consisting of lawyers, academics,
consultants, journalists and civil rights activists.
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- Winners were chosen from roughly 300 people and organizations
nominated by the public. They receive a lovely gold statue of a boot stamping
on a human head, which is usually mailed to the winners, as none has never
shown up to collect its award.
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- Big Brother Awards are now held as an annual event in
17 countries. Each event typically focuses on privacy violations in the
host country.
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- But Privacy International opted to make an exception
this year by including in the U.K. awards a U.S. initiative, US-Visit.
This security program requires that most foreign visitors traveling to
the United States on a visa have their index fingers digitally scanned
and a digital photograph taken, so that immigration officers can verify
their identity before the visitors are allowed entry into the United States.
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- "The scheme is offensive and invasive, and has been
undertaken with little or no debate or scrutiny," said Simon Davies,
director of Privacy International. "Nor has the requirement taken
any account of the 'special relationship' between the U.K. and the U.S.
The U.K. government has been silent about the program and has capitulated
every step of the way."
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- Margaret Hodge, U.K. minister of state for children,
won Worst Public Servant because of her support for a controversial tracking
system that would share information collected on minors by Britain's National
Health program with other government agencies.
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- While the ministry believes that such tracking would
prevent child abuse, others have fought it on the basis that sharing such
information is a breach of doctor-patient confidentiality.
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- British Gas was cited as the Most Invasive Company, after
it declared that U.K. privacy rules prevented it from helping an elderly
couple who were found dead of hypothermia in their home last winter, weeks
after their gas service was cut off due to nonpayment of a 140-pound ($255)
bill.
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- British Gas said the Data Protection Act, intended to
ensure that personal information is protected, prohibited it from reporting
the situation to social services agencies that could have helped the couple
restore heating service.
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- Runner-up in this category was banking firm Lloyds TSB,
which has been demanding that customers present themselves at their local
branch office with proper photo ID or face having their bank accounts frozen.
Lloyds describes the project as a way to stop terrorism and international
money laundering.
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- FollowUs, a company that uses GPS chips embedded in mobile
phones to locate the phones' users "for peace of mind, security or
fun" was also a runner-up.
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- Most Appalling Project was awarded to Britain's National
Health Service electronic medical records program, which aims to computerize
patient records in a way that some have protested is insecure and will
compromise patient privacy.
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- Runner-up in this category was mobile-phone company Vodafone,
which blocks customers from logging onto adult websites through their phone
handsets in order, the company says, to protect mobile-phone-toting, porn-seeking
children.
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- Customers can access adult websites by proving their
age by providing their credit card details to the company online, over
the phone or in person, and specifically requesting that adult-access blocks
be dropped.
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- Most Heinous Government Organization was won by The Office
of National Statistics for its development of the Citizen Information Project,
which will collect, collate and share U.K. citizens' data with other government
agencies.
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- The Department for Transport won runner-up for its electronic
vehicle-identification program, currently under development. Known as the
Spy in the Dashboard, the program will embed microprocessor chips into
cars. The chips would automatically report any instances of speeding, illegal
parking and other grievous offenses to authorities, who would follow up
with a summons.
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- "We are seeing a race to the bottom, where government
and private sector alike compete to provide the most intrusive services
in the most unstable environment for privacy," said Davies. "The
proclaimed need for protection of children and the fight against terrorism
is often shamelessly used as the pretext for privacy invasion."
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- This September, Privacy International plans to publish
a comprehensive study of antiterrorism policy developments worldwide.
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