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Big Brother Awards for Privacy Invaders
Dozix007 writes "The Register reports that the shortlist for this year's Big Brother awards for nasty privacy invaders has been released. The awards include: Worst Public Servant, Most Invasive Company, Most Appalling Project, Most Heinous Government Organisation and Lifetime Menace Award - now renamed the David Blunkett Lifetime Menace Award. Pressure group Privacy International, which organises the awards, said it was overwhelmed by nominations for Blunkett, the Home Office and national ID cards but they had been recognised in previous years."
FP? Seriously though, isn't logging and keeping track of mod points also an invasion of privacy?
But I'd like to thank my parents, George W. Bush, that Senator that beat me after he died, Bob Jones University, Muslims all over the world, and of course God, for making this possible!
John Ashcroft
Here is the website for The 2004 UK Big Brother Awards, for those of you who want to skip over that puny Register article. My thoughts on this subject is that it's a great idea to shine a huge spotlight on those who would infringe upon privacy, to give them a taste of their own medicine. Of course I don't condone tapping their phones, blackmailing the execs or sending boxes of poo to their doors (like on Six Feet Under's recent arc). This award show will do just fine, in an almost biblical manner of sinning the sinner.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
I'm sure MS will be on that list. They managed to get an OS on my computer that I didn't want.
404
Where is the US equivilent ????
This is for the UK only.
"Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, said: "The nominations reflect a broad and intensified assault on the right to privacy in the UK. There is a clear hostility within government to privacy and a general antagonism to it from within business. We have seen few instances where privacy has been genuinely respected by large organisations."
I find it rather laughable that they even consider corporate privacy in a state where cameras track your every move and there's no legal guarantee of any kind of privacy at all. I mean, fuck- Britons live in Orwell's 1984 made flesh.
The judges are simply spoilt for choice here. It would cost a fortune to manufacture the number of awards needed...
Web Sig: Eddy Currents
"If you are interested in attending the awards you need to register at UKBBA@privacy.org"
:)
I wonder if you have to give them your real name.
I had never heard of this list however the more publicity it sees the more awareness it raises. It is very interesting and I am not currently using any products from any of the mentioned companies and will now know to avoid them in the future. If more lists like this were in the popular media, companies would be at least held a little more accountable for there actions by those customers who care about such issues and do not have the time to gather the information about them elsewhere.
News Article Title: Big Brother Awards for Privacy Invaders
What's wrong with this title, people?
"Hello, Big Brother? I'd like to report YOU! Oh, hang on, there's somebody at my door."
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
David Blunkett. British politician, now in charge of Homeland Security for the U.K. I'm sure that in spirit it would be translated to the "John Ashcroft Lifetime Award" for U.Sians, but the position Blunkett holds is probably more akin to Tom Ridge's.
I'd like to see an annual list of organizations, companies, banks, utilities that sell your address and phone numer to marketers. I expect if I sign up for a "club card" at Safeway or some other retailer, that my info is potentially up for grabs, but when I signed up with Sierra Club, my junk mail exponentially grew, and I OPTED OUT!! of the sharing info option. I think they probably kill more trees than they save. I've received 3 renewal notices from them since February of this year, and my membership expires in August!
I guess he isn't too busy with his other job.
:-)
http://www.hallandoates.com/
The bank insists "that customers report to a branch with documents to prove their identities".
The article does not explain under what circumstances the bank requires this, perhaps to open an account.
So why is this invasive? Would the judges rather have the bank naively believe anything a potential con-artist tells them over the phone?
In this age of identity theft, this might be a bank to consider. Apparently, they take a persons true identity seriously.
Ashcroft is not mentioned.
Green on the outide RED on the inside.
Oh Yeah "Build the Road!" NO Wilderness!
The roiad through GSMNP of course.
Contenders for Worst Public Servant are Margaret Hodge for her support for a database of children and "good behaviour" orders for children as young as eight.
So, how come Santa Claus is not on the shortlist? Let's put that #1 record keeper in the world on a list for a change. Let's see how he likes the taste of his own medicine!
I hear there's rumors on the Slashdots
Did you check the option to opt-out of the list of opt-out people? Did you check the list to mark your information as inherited opt-out? You know, if you give your info to the marketing division, they might share it with the collections division, who might share it with the membership division, and somewhere along the line the "private" bit on your data didn't line up in the database, and someone in the corporate affairs insurance services division closes a deal on 50,000 new leads. :)
I've always been suspicious of that opt-out crap, too. Like all the spam mail that says "click here to be (re)moved from the list". Removed from one list, added to another.
+++ATHZ 99:5:80
Never give a charity with no purpose your address.
I once gave my address to The March of Dimes Foundation, but that was a mistake.
At present, the only charity with my current address is the local NPR affiliate, and they haven't abused it to my knowledge.
Slashdot is my Mercer Box.
Anyone notice that you have to register in order to attend the event? Other than filling the organization's mailing list, what's the legitimate purpose for making privacy advocates identify themselves?
I think they should take a look in the mirror.
-Pompous American Ass
They hardly track my every move - they're primarily used after the fact to identify people or to follow people attempting to evade the police.
:-\
They're all in public places, I have no expectation of privacy in a public place and I'm not committing any offences, it really doesn't bother me.
So, in the UK its ok for the government not to know where you are... as long as you never leave the house!?!
All I'm doing is using the Parent Post's logic...
-B
--
Duke Nukem Forever :p
"Nettle vs. Aclu Part 1", "Part 2" AND "Part 3"
An excerpt from "Nettle vs. ACLU"
No, 1984 would require surveilance in the privacy of your own home, tracking your sexual habits, hobbies, et cetera. Keeping track of everywhere you go, your political opinions, and taking action against you for them. It will be 1984 when your television records YOU.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
Can anyone in the US what's the big deal with a national ID card? In this part of the world and in many other countries there are national ID cards and nobody cares. I understand you use your SSN and driver's license for what we use the ID card. So what could be the problem in having one?
Not trolling, I always wanted to understand your point of view about this.
My website
there's no doubt about it. Nonprofits exist to give a collective voice and purse to a group of people who would otherwise be mute or dependent on patronage.
I don't know what to do about it, except not donate. Various groups exist that track overhead spending by nonprofits, and more than a few nonprofits seem to exist solely for the purpose of employing their executives, which to me is a complete violation of trust. Unfortunately, there's nothing anyone can do but withdraw their support.
So I have a personal list of charities that will never receive another dollar of my money. Maybe we need a way to track the number of people that feel the same, a rating system for charities beyond simple economics.
Slashdot is my Mercer Box.
and let me take the opportunity to thank all of you Britons for pay this fee to keep the BBC around. As an American, I trust the BBC news more than any organization; especially for news about American.
Also I love fun comedies like The Office. Jolly good show!
Open Source Sushi
The link in the description is only an article at the register.com. The actual website for the US awards can be found here and links for big brother awards for other nations can be found here.
Beware blue cats moving at
The alternative is to not have mod points and although most people don't agree with the odd moderation, they are a great way to filter out the idiots.
Get paid to search..It's geniune and
I've recently gone through the agony of watching a friend die as a result of being attacked on the street. The incident was caught on CCTV and the offender caught the next day.
The CCTV footage also helped my friend's family confront his death, by showing exactly what happened and how he didn't provoke the attack at any point.
Needless to say, I support the use of CCTV as it is now.
AC
My understanding was that a TV *does* emit radio waves, and that they can and do track them. They also do it the easy way - look for TV sales, look for houses with no TV (in this day and age???) and hassle them (I had no TV for a few years and got a good few "reminders"). When they think they can make money at it - they DO get the detector vans out though. Student flats - hand held detector wandering from floor to floor (Students are very poor at getting licences, but most have a TV). S.
Oh, and everyone, it's fundraising time at WGBH, which produces so many of those wonderful PBS shows. Please consider donating.
K means kingdom. That means the rights you have are what some crazy old person decides you should have. It's not hard to figure out...
A rather naive assessment of a modern constitional monarchy, if you don't mind me saying.
If you pick your jaw up off the floor and keep reading through the tears, a bit further down it says:
That probably doesn't qualify for your list of evil-doers, but it almost made me lose my lunch.
You are overrating some parts of anglosaxon law system.
.
The basis of UK law is that everything is permitted unless specifically prohibited (reverse is true in many countries)
This was even truth in comunistic countries. I agree that this was (probably) inventeted in UK as a rule, but it is common thing in most of the even semicivilized (read: dictatorship countries) world
UK invented many of things in legal systems that we take for granted, but you should be aware that nothing lasts forever! For instance, UK legal system does not allow you to go to second instance court in many cases - which is, from continental point of view, serious abuse of human rights (IIRC, if you are trialed by jurry, you can't complain to their decision; they allowed this recently, but only in some extremely rare cases).
Not to mention last report of Lord Hutton (if I had luck to spell its name correctly). In most of the world, ad-hoc parlamentarian comitee would investigate that, not prime minister's favorite judge. Ok, I am sounding like flaimbaiter, but these examples clearly show why we (including Britons, no matter of their past achievements) need more organisations like Privacy International.
No sig today.
Yeah, I know he's blind and good for him to get to the position he's got, but it doesn't change the fact that he's an authoritarian socialist statist who's ideal society seems to be based upon the Soviet system but with more technology.
He deserves a special prize for his efforts to increase state control and reduce individual liberty and privacy.
Are they implying women don't spy? If the men deserve to be recognizer, the women do 10 times better than men can ever be! In fact, male spies have proven to be less reliable[1]! The organizers should get rid or their stupid James Bond spy images!
[1] http://www.gateway2russia.com/st/art_236867.php
If the police were really interested in stopping crime, they would put cameras in every corporate board room in the country instead.
You pay a TV tax too, you're just too dumb to realise it. Who do ya think pays for all the adverts you have on your TV, the companies thenselves? Of course not. They just put the prices of their products up to cover the cost of the ads, so you pay just as much as we do, only for crap TV that is interupted by adverts. Give me a TV license any day.
For instance, UK legal system does not allow you to go to second instance court in many cases - which is, from continental point of view, serious abuse of human rights (IIRC, if you are trialed by jurry, you can't complain to their decision; they allowed this recently, but only in some extremely rare cases).
Er, well, whilst it is true that in the UK you cannot appeal on a question of fact (ie you cannot appeal the jury's decision on guilt or innocence) you can certainly appeal on a question of law. So your point is somewhat wrong.
But to make the comparison with "Continental" jurisprudence is spurious at best. It is critical to remember that in the Common law tradition it is up to the state to prove guilt and that the defendant is innocent until such proof beyond reasonable doubt is offered, and then accepted by the jury of 12 of the defendants peers. Such a presumption of innocence does not exist in the Roman/Napoleonic model from which the vast majority of the continental jurisdictions derive their criminal justice. This "golden thread" of British justice (Thank you Rumpole) and he role of the jury is at the heart of the difference.
However back to the original posters point. The constitution of the UK (and there is one, its just not written down) is founded on the idea that all things are permitted unless prescribed otherwise by law. The codified rights and duties of the continental criminal codes do not present the same ideals of freedom as this. Indeed I would suggest that the simple fact that the grandparent post actualy asked the question about "what is so wrong with having to have an ID card" says more about the fundamental differences about continental Europe and the UK than any subsequent post.
"The first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is stop digging."
I am not the lawyer, but I have some formal training related to legal systems and constitutional systems.
Both you and grand-grand parent still believe, for some quite odd reason, that "presumption of innosence" (as it is called in Serbia) does not exist outside of UK/USA. Unfortunately, I don't know when it was introduced in our legal system, but it was there even during the communistic regime. Napoleon and Roman Empire do not exist any more.
Many, many important ideas in our (or any continental) legal system came from UK. We accepted good ideas from you. So in our codified law it is clearly written "everything that is not prohibited by written word is not prohibited".
So you just prove what I wanted to say: you must continue to improve your system, otherwise you'll be behind other countries. You should not rely on your old glory!
PS Actually, in this sad moment of our civilisaion, where human rights goes downwards all over the world, maintaining status quo would probably enable you significant advantage comparing to other countries.
No sig today.