Re: [Budapest, 28.11.] 1st Big Brother Awards Hungary

[Peter Kuhm <peter.kuhm@plus.at>]

And the winners are...

===SNIP===

Press Release
(for immediate publication)


The Big Brother Awards (BBA) founded by Privacy International were handed
out first time in Hungary on the 28th of November. The Hungarian award is
the first occasion when it has been distributed in a former Socialist
country.

The Big Brother Award takes its name from George Orwell's famous phrase,
"The Big Brother is Watching You," and the it is given to those government
organizations, private individuals and companies that have violated human
rights and abused their power of access to information in the most appalling
way. This award will be henceforth-after the United Kingdom, the United
States of America, Austria, Germany, France and Switzerland-granted each
year in Hungary in five categories. The jury consisting of public
personalities, lawyers, computer experts and artists took its decision on
the 21st of November. Following are the results of the Hungarian vote:

Category of companies:

In the category of companies of the Hungarian Big Brother Awards, one of the
hypermarkets of Tesco has been awarded because it had built a camera system
for surveillance of its employees without any prior notification to them.
Moreover, data stemming from the surveillance were preserved and used later
even against the dismissed employees. In the Budaörs hypermarket of
Tesco-Global Corporation, if any fired employee walked in as customer,
security guards would spring up immediately out of the blue to escort
him/her all over the store in a discriminative fashion.

The jury also nominated for the award Microsoft Hungary Ltd. for the
Passport function of the Hungarian version of Windows XP that was recently
launched in Hungary. Among those nominated was a Hungarian enterprise (Suli
Info kft.) as well, which would send-with the help of a computer system (via
sms) - to the parents the marks received by their children in the classroom.
This initiative stirred up serious indignation in the society at large, and
it was discussed in articles in the Hungarian press.

Government category:

In the government category, the Ministry of Justice received the negative
award because of the new draft Act on the protection of personal data and
openness of data of public interest. This draft means that the private life
of citizens would become more transparent and the activities of the State
would be more enigmatic. This draft would-among other things-introduce the
possibility of setting up surveillance by cameras in educational
institutions and workplaces.

The jury has also nominated in the government category the Central Office of
the Ministry of Interior for Data Processing, Inventory and Elections (BM),
because it handed over  illegally the citizen's data  to another government
institution: the Department of Country Image  (OK). This center started
mailing out the government's publication "Országjáró" (Country Traveler) by
name to every Hungarian citizen. OK is not entitled to use the data in this
manner. The Ministry of Interior received another nomination since it has
been putting up for sale the citizen's data as a business venture to those
firms that are willing to pay for them. It has a lawful empowerment to do
so, however-in the opinion of Hungarian e-privacy protectors-this is a
violation of general interests of the society, since it allows many firms to
use even the particulars of children in business purposes. In this way
acted, for example, Hasbro, when it bought the list of addresses of
Hungarian children from the Ministry of Interior.

Personal Award:

The award of BBA to private individuals goes to Member of Parliament Mr.
Róbert Répássy for a draft amendment to a law that was finally not adopted
because of constitutional objections by President Ferenc Mádl. According to
this draft, Hungarian journalists would be fined for breach of public
interest if they caused offense to any person in their columns, and if any
court of law made a final verdict  on that point.

Award by the Public's Choice:

The BBA awarded by the public was given on the basis of votes by internet
users, by a large margin (39.4%), to the Department of Country Image for
mailing out the 'Country Traveler' news sheet described above. This Center
was able to achieve the misgivings of the public by its activities,
since-although it was entitled by law to deliver any paper containing some
data of public interest-it needed a precise legal authorization to use the
names and addresses of the citizens.

Positive E-privacy Award:

The affirmative version of BBA was given to ex Parliamentary Commissioner
for Data Protection and Freedom of Information Dr. László Majtényi to honor
his pioneer's work in the field of Hungarian e-privacy.

People were able to vote and/or nominate from 14th through 20th of November
on the website www.nagytestverdij.hu and www.bigbrotherawards.hu (hosted by
the Big Brother Austria) and the jury took these votes also into
consideration when taking its decisions. Naturally, once a proposal got into
the list of candidates, this would not mean that the given company, private
individual or government agency had committed anything illegal. The award
demonstrates in essence how the public judges the candidates morally and
sociologically for their activities in the field of e-privacy.

Presenting the awards in Budapest was attended by Dr. László Majtényi
delivery of the award took (in the positive e-privacy category). The rest of
the "awards" remained unaccepted.

In the course of delivery of the Hungarian Big Brother Award, the organizers
acted in full accordance with international practice.


"...the kind of totalitarian state George Orwell envisaged doesn't spring up
overnight. It is more likely creep into egzistence through the erosion of
small freedoms and small rights to privacy."
(New Scientist Editorial, 2001. 05. 05.)



Budapest, 28.11.2001.     Technology for People Foundation



More information:

Website:   www.hu.bigbrotherawards.org
Press release:  http://www.hu.bigbrotherawards.org/press01.htm


Contact persons:  Zoltan Galantai or Csaba Miskolczy
E-mail:   info@nagytesvtverdij.hu
Zoltan.galantai@bigbrotherawards.org

Technology for People Foundation
Budapest 1055, Szalay u. 2.
Tel.: (36-1) 302-4130, (36-1) 302-1986
Fax: (36-1) 302-4964

---
BIG  BROTHER   AWARDS.HU R
Technika az Emberért Alapítvány (TEA)
Budapest 1055, Szalay u. 2.
T.: 302-4130, 302-1986, F: 302-4964
www.nagytestverdij.hu

===SNAP===



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