Minister Hanke Bruins Slot of the Interior and Swedish European Commissioner Ylva Johansson are the winners of the Big Brother Awards. Civil rights organization Bits of Freedom annually awards these prizes to the “biggest privacy violators of the Netherlands.”
Bruins Slot received the prize “for facilitating the boundless data hunger of the secret services and for breaking down the supervision of those same services”. The minister intends to relax the supervision of the Intelligence and Security Services Act.
According to that law, the AIVD and MIVD must request permission for hacks from the independent Assessment Committee for the Use of Powers. But in a bill that was recently sent to the House of Representatives, Bruins Slot abandons this prior supervision. The investigation for a hack can then take place while the operation is already underway.
Bruins Slot was not present at the ceremony. Predecessors often personally collected the prizes. Last year these were Hugo de Jonge (then of Public Health) and Ferd Grapperhaus (then of Justice and Security). Bruins Slot will later get a new opportunity to respond.
For the first time a prize to Brussels
For the first time, a Big Brother Award goes to a European Commissioner. Ylva Johansson won the public award because of her proposal to allow tech companies to monitor all European telephones. The idea behind it is to better combat child abuse.
Bits of Freedom calls the proposal “arguably the biggest threat to confidential communications right now.” Johansson received the award digitally.
Anonymous whistleblower made a positive contribution
The Felipe Rodriguez Award went to an anonymous whistleblower who works for a municipality. The prize is for people who make an important contribution to the right to privacy.
The whistleblower revealed serious and fundamental problems with compliance with privacy legislation at Dutch municipalities. Transparency International director Lousewies van der Laan accepted the award on behalf of the whistleblower.
