Paris, january 29th 2002- The second edition of the french Big Brother Awards
ended on January, the 28th, 2002 by the presentation of the awards given to
the surveillance champions during last year.

A jury gathered by Privacy International to honor five project, institutions
or firms who have struck a blow in privacy or neglected to protect it. Two
special prizes have been awarded, as well as the Voltaire Prize which
recognize the effort of those who fight for privacy, liberty and against "Big
Brothers".

Most intrusive administration:
French prison authority and ministry of justice.
The jury is worried about the degradation of the prisoners’ privacy. The jury
noted that the prisoners basics rights, being supposed guaranteed by the
European agreement of human rights, are most of the time not fully respected.

Most intrusive firm:
Cegedim (data mining of the health system Sesame Vitale card network)
This firm’ data processing does not respect the complete anonymity of the
data gathered by its network, while selling them to a lot of private
contractors. Besides, the website of this "Leader in pharmaceutical
marketing, European Leader in the field of doctor’s computerisation and
networks, Leader in business-to-business marketing" doesn’t have a single
word about privacy.

Most intrusive city:
Mante la Jolie, for its CCTV set up of the Val Fourré, a relatively poor
suburban district mostly populated by immigrants.
A special prize has been awarded to the Paris city which files all the
beneficiaries of the minimum welfare to allow them free transport tickets.

Most intrusive project:
The Navigo and Prismatica projects (sponsored by the RATP, paris public
transport authority)
Navigo is a project of an electronic transport card which will soon be
compulsory and will give the ability to trace any cardholder on the whole
paris transportation system.
Prismatica is a project aiming to electronically detect any diverting or
suspect behaviour. This project is also in use in 4 other European capitals,
which could well be awarded in their respective country; let’s name the UK
(Newham, London Underground Limited-LUL), and Belgium (Brussels, STIB) -
2 others are Lisbon and Prague.

Special prize to the french governement and parliament for the LSQ law.
The LSQ (Loi sur la Sécurité Quotidienne), passed short after the september
terrorist’s attacks, allows magistrates unlimited discretion to issue search
warrants for vehicles and homes, telephone and Internet communication data
– including encrypted data- to be accessed and surveilled, violates the rights
to anonymous and private personal communications and places into one category
terrorism, immigration, civil protest, political opposition and petty crimes.

Voltaire prize:
– European deputy Alima Boumediene Thierry for having protested against the
security drift.
– The french syndicate of the judiciary for having protested against the LSQ
law.

See the video :
http://digipressetmp3.teaser.fr/uploads/385/bba2.ram (lowband)
http://digipressetmp3.teaser.fr/uploads/385/bba.ram (broadband)

See next year for the third edition
Big Brother Awards France : http://www.bigbrotherawards.eu.org