Ceremony of the BigBrotherAwards 2026 on September 25th in Bielefeld and online

The BigBrotherAwards are the “Oscars for surveillance”, organized by Digitalcourage e. since 2000. V. in collaboration with cooperation partners. The Negative Prize is awarded annually to companies, organizations and people who violate people's privacy in a particularly invasive manner and sell personal data or use it against their original interests. Every year they honor data offenders in business and politics. The presentation of this year's 26th BigBrotherAwards will take place on September 25th, 2026 (Friday), from 6:00 p.m. as part of a gala evening in the Hechelei in Ravensberger Park in Bielefeld. The entire event will also be streamed live on the websitehttps://bigbrotherawards.de transmitted. For more advance information, see thePress release from August 3, 2026 at Digitalcourage e. v. 

• BigBrotherAwards 2026: Fielmann and Apollo Optik, Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, the EU Commission, Deutsche Telekom and the Evangelical Northern Church
  On Friday, September 25, 2026, Digitalcourage and other civil rights organizations presented the BigBrotherAwards for the 26th time: The glasses stalk, the church sins and the bus has no brakes:
  • “Technology” category: optician chains Apollo Optik and Fielmann for the distribution of smart glasses, especially Ray-Ban/Meta glasses
    Elisabeth Niekrenz summarizes the criticism in her laudatory speech: “Fielmann and Apollo Optik are normalizing secret filming and eavesdropping - and making money from stalkerware.” SeeInformation and laudation , see also:
    • Fielmann and Apollo Optik receive “Surveillance Oscar”.Article by Jette Scheibchen from September 25, 2026 in network politics 
  • Category “Authorities & Administration”: Federal Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt for the modernization of the register and the use of the tax ID
    Frank Rosengart criticizes in his laudatory speech: “The introduction of a uniform personal identification number for all registers is a decisive step towards becoming a transparent citizen.” SeeInformation and laudation and our dossier:Register Modernization and Tax ID: One Number to Find Them All
  • Category “EU/Europe”: The European Commission for the “Digital Omnibus”
    Guest laudator Ralf Bendrath warns: “The 'digital omnibus' threatens to dismantle core elements of European data protection law and its protection standards.” SeeInformation and laudation and our dossier:Digital Omnibus: “Biggest step backwards for fundamental digital rights in the history of the EU” and beginnings of resistance
  • “Preventive” category: Deutsche Telekom AG for the merger with T-Mobile US
    The prize is specifically awarded preventatively. Rena Tangens explains: “‘“Connecting your world” is what Telekom advertises. After the merger with T-Mobile US, that would mean: Connected to Washington, to the FCC, to US secret services.” SeeInformation and laudation – seeTelekom is also cutting diversity programs in the USA – appeal “Telekom vs. Trump: Defend diversity!”
  • “Civil Society” category: Evangelical Northern Church for mandatory use of Microsoft 365 services and compulsory use of the Microsoft cloud
    Thilo Weichert criticizes in his laudatory speech: “The Northern Church forces its members by law to use and pay for Microsoft cloud services.” SeeInformation and laudation 
  • Category “young and monitored”: Blanket social media bans and age controls for young people do not solve the problems of commercial platforms
    The choice of topic and design of the contribution came from the Teckids and young people themselves. Digitalcourage supported them in the development and implementation. SeeInformation and laudation and our dossier:EU package on data protection (ePrivacy) and chat control

Basic information:

• All award winners and the complete laudation texts with reasons as well as the complete video of the gala:https://bigbrotherawards.de/2026 
• #BigBrotherAwards #BBA26
• See last:25th anniversary: ​​BigBrotherAwards 2025 – Oscars for data octopuses

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