For the first time in six years, Bulgarian civil society organizations organize the Big Brother Awards, a means to shame the worst violators of citizens’ privacy during the previous year.
Internet Society Bulgaria and Access to Information Program in Bulgaria call for nominations of governmental bodies, companies and persons which have violated or violate the privacy of citizens and personal data. Suggestions by the citizens can be submitted by January 24. The organizers note that enormous amounts of personal data are being collected, stored and processed – often illegally – in the pursuit of more efficient marketing and greater social control.
This year, the jury consisting of lawyers, academics, consultants, journalists, civil right activists will present two awards, one for a private organization and one for a state institution, which had excelled in the violation of citizens’ privacy.
The founder of the Big Brother Awards is the international human rights organization Privacy International. The name is inspired by the character of the Big Brother from George Orwell’s novel “1984”, which symbolizes the power of the state which conducts absolute surveillance and provides for the basic needs of the subjects at the price of total annihilation of human freedoms. The symbol of the anti-award is a military boot which is crushing a human head, which also refers to a scene from the cult book.
Privacy International presented the first Big Brother Awards in the UK in 1998. Since then a growing number of affiliate human rights groups present the Big Brother Awards in around twenty countries. Ceremonies for this year, alongside Bulgaria, are scheduled for the Netherlands and Germany.
The Bulgarian Big Brother Awards will be presented at a public ceremony in Sofia on 3 February 2019.
