Big Brother Awards 2003 – USA

On April 3, 2003, Privacy International announced the winners of the 5th Annual US “Big Brother” awards to the government and private sector organizations that have done the most to invade personal privacy in the United States.

http://www.privacyinternational.org/bigbrother/us2003/

Four "Big Brother"
awards were presented to the individuals, organizations, and departments
that have done most to invade personal privacy. An " "lifetime
menace" award was given to an invader with a long history
of attacking privacy.


"Brandeis"
awards were also given to individuals who have made an outstanding
contribution to the protection of privacy.


"This year’s nominations
reflected a protest against homeland security efforts that attempted
to shock and awe freedom-loving Americans out of their civil liberties,"
said Chris Hoofnagle, organizer of the event.


2003 US Big Brother
Award Winners


MOST INVASIVE PROPOSAL



  • Total Information
    Awareness–The Total Information Awareness project is part of
    the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Information
    Awareness Office. The office is headed by Admiral (retired)
    John Poindexter who is responsible for conceiving the project.
    The project calls for the development of "revolutionary
    technology for ultra-large all-source information repositories,"
    which would contain information from multiple sources to create
    a "virtual, centralized, grand database." This database
    would be populated by transaction data contained in current
    databases such as financial records, medical records, communication
    records, and travel records as well as new sources of information.





GREATEST CORPORATE
INVADER


Delta Airlines–Delta
is the "partner" of the Transportation Security Administration
in administration of a CAPPS II pilot in three cities in the U.S.
CAPPS II is the Enhanced Computer Assisted Passenger Profiling
System, a program designed to draw from over 100 sources to evaluate
whether a passenger is "rooted in the community," and
therefore not a flight risk. CAPPS II relies heavily on the commercial
information brokers to provide personal data on individuals, and
the system can be expanded for use at train stations, bus stations,
or the entrances of public buildings.



WORST PUBLIC OFFICIAL



  • Viet Dinh–Viet
    Dinh is Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy.
    Dinh was the architect of the PATRIOT Act and of the Attorney
    General’s Guidelines, which now allow the FBI to engage in searches
    and monitoring of chat rooms, bulletin boards, and websites
    without evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Additionally, agents
    are permitted to visit public places and events to monitor individuals’
    activities with no predicate of criminal suspicion. These powers
    are not limited to terrorism investigations–they can be used
    for any violation of federal law, including drug crimes, white-collar
    crime, and copyright violations.





THE ADMIRAL JOHN
M. POINDEXTER LIFETIME MENACE AWARD


Osama Bin Laden–For
giving Attorney General Ashcroft the excuse he needed to pass
the USA PATRIOT Act and the Homeland Security Act, and the gall
necessary to formulate PATRIOT II, new draft legislation designed
to push police power even further.


2003 Brandeis Award
Winners


Edmund Mierzwinski–Edmund
Mierzwinski is U.S. PIRG Consumer Program Director. Ed Mierzwinski
has been a consumer advocate with the National Association of
State Public Interest Research Groups (U.S. PIRG) since 1989.
State PIRGs are non-profit, non-partisan consumer, environmental
and good government watchdog groups with offices around the country.
Ed Mierzwinski often testifies before Congress and state legislatures
and has authored numerous reports on consumer, privacy, credit
card, credit reporting, identity theft and other bank and financial
issues.


Jim Kasper–James Kasper
serves as a Representative to the North Dakota state legislature.
Representative Kasper is a business leader and tireless advocate
of opt-in privacy laws in North Dakota. This legislative session,
Rep. Kasper has already moved three privacy bills through the
North Dakota House. (1477, Relating to securities privacy of information;
relating to insurance privacy of information, passed 92-0; 1478,
Relating to disclosure of financial information; relating to financial
institution customer privacy passed 89-2; and 1179, Relating to
disclosing nonpublic personal information, passed 91-0). Representative
Kasper lives in Fargo with his wife and two children.


Charlene Nelson–Charlene
Nelson is a North Dakota farmer who led a successful referendum
in her state to reestablish opt-in privacy rules. She formed "Protect
Our Privacy," a non-profit, non-partisan organization devoted
to repealing ND SB 2191, which allows banks and financial institutions
to release personal information on an opt-out basis. On June 11,
2002, North Dakotans voted overwhelmingly in favor of opt-in financial
privacy–73% approved.


Joyce Meskis–Joyce
Meskis is the owner of the Denver-based Tattered Cover bookstore.
She led an important battle for book buyer privacy. In Tattered
Cover v. City of Thornton
, she successfully challenged a law
enforcement request for book purchaser records. The decision,
which recognizes an individual right to anonymity in book purchasing,
also requires that a hearing be held before customer records can
be released.