courtesy Lambda Flash : http://lambda.eu.org The 4th edition of the Big Brother Awards was held in Paris last Wednesday, February 4, 2004. Here are the final results: State & Public Figures: Justice and Home ministers Dominique PERBEN + Nicolas SARKOZY, co-sponsors of the "law of justice adaptation to organized crime", that breaches fondamental rights and defense powers, extends wiretaps, authorizes remote audio-video surveillance, extends DNA database to ordinary crimes... Private Sector Organizations: French Federation of Insurance Companies (FFSA), for its long-running policy to get access to medical records, urging the end of anonymization of such data and a closer "partnership" between patients and insurance companies. - Pascal Negre, Universal France chief, was then given the "doping award" (as got Sarkozy last year) for its continuous lobbying in Parliament and the media to build tougher EUCD-like schemes in France. Local Administration & Urban Policies: Catholic Schools in Angers, for their biometric-based devices (fingerprints) instaled at their school restaurants - children are screened every day to have food, and can be excluded if the parents have not paid on time. Technologies & Systems: RFID tags, especially those sold by the French high-tech company Inside Contastless - based in Aix en Provence (South - near Marseille). These long-range RFIDs have been sold in China, officially to counter fraud in public transports, but ultimatly used inside... official Students Cards. Special Price - pour l’Ensemble de son oeuvre (Lifetime Menace Award) goes to French defense electronics conglomerate THALES, who was selected last year for its contract with the Chinese government on a 1 billion-worth smart cards deal to be used in next generation IDs. Thales won also for its internet surveilance schemes, smart video systems, biometric devices, and also for its last "SHIELD" concept - a homeland security "package", unveiled at the last MILIPOL trade show in Paris. Thales is pleased to say it has been choosen to implement the cyber police network of Brizilian city Porto Alegre, where World Social Forum delegates met last time in January 2003. THALES won with a 1 voice advance with French Senator Alex TURK, newly elected by its pairs president of the Data Protection Commission (CNIL) - he was elected juts the day before the BB Awards ceremony. Former & actual head of "data protection authorities" of EU-wide databases like Eurodac, Schengen (SIS), and Europol; he has been a loose protector of citizens privacy, justified post 9/11 security measures, reduced private sectors obligations and approved recent music industry plees to create database of suspected music file traders. Orwell EU went to the JHA Council of Ministers. For its long list of democratic threats passed through security measures in the wake of 9/11, especially the data retention directive of 2002, the Eurodac and Schengen database, biometric IDs in passeports, its ability to use "3rd pillar" matters - of which the EU has no official authority - to bypass Parliament and democratic debate. Our Voltaire price - positive award - was given to a small group of public educators in Chambery (Savoie), that opposed a recent cooperation signed by their employee and the national police; it should oblige them to report every suspected felony from the kids they are supposed to look at during their difficult teenhood. All the winners are exposed here (in french): http://nomines.bigbrotherawards.eu.org/index.php?gng=1