The Italian Big Brother Awards for 2007
(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
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