Data protection | Big Brother Awards: Negative prizes for “tensioner glasses” and the like.

The large German optician chains also offer glasses with an integrated camera, microphone and access to the Internet and AI. There is a reprimand from Digitalcourage for this. Photo: Imago/Joanna Kordina It's that time again. Once a year, the Digitalcourage association presents the Big Brother Awards to denounce the worst data offenders in the country. This year's negative prizes go, among others, to the optician chains Fielmann and Apollo, Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) - again - the EU Commission, Deutsche Telekom and the Evangelical Northern Church. There is also a reprimand in the form of the award for the planned social media ban for young people. The prizes will be awarded for the 26th time this Friday evening - in Bielefeld.

According to von Digitalcourage, the prize is intended to draw attention to data misuse and threats to privacy and fundamental rights by companies, the state, but also civil society actors. Previous awards have been given for discount cards, toll cameras and cell phone surveillance. The organizers also point to cases in which the award ceremonies had consequences: after an award for Tchibo, the company stopped trading in customer data and after an award from the Computer Science Corporation, public sector award guidelines were changed.

This year, the focus is particularly on Federal Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt, who was awarded the prize last year. It received it in the “Authorities and Administration” category for register modernization and the associated use of the tax ID as a uniform personal identification number. According to the current plans, the code number in the administrative data should be clearly assigned to a person. The use of the tax ID is currently planned for more than 50 registers, and in the future it will be used in all government databases.

The jury sees this as the technical basis for a stronger link between information from different areas of life. The planned digitalization is intended to simplify administrative services and enable the so-called once-only principle: Citizens should not have to submit evidence to different authorities over and over again. The criticism is therefore not directed against the digitalization of the administration itself, but rather against the uniform identification number provided for this purpose and the associated retrieval options.

In the laudatory speech, Frank Rosengart from the Chaos Computer Club refers to a long history. The introduction of the tax ID was already criticized in 2007 with a Big Brother Award. And in 2020, the Conference of Interior Ministers received the “award” for the planned expansion of the ID into a universal personal identification number. The technical implementation of the National Once-Only Technical System (NOOTS) has now begun. The Federal Ministry of the Interior is politically responsible for the overarching register modernization.

The jury sees another problem with far-reaching consequences at the European level. In the “EU/Europe” category, the award goes to the EU Commission for the “Digital Omnibus”. According to the Commission, the legislative package is intended to simplify the digital legal framework. Guest laudator Ralf Bendrath, consultant for civil liberties, justice and home affairs for the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, argues that the “simplification agenda” sounds harmless. However, behind this lies “the biggest attack on European data protection since the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation”.

Specifically, Bendrath criticizes planned changes to the General Data Protection Regulation. Among other things, it concerns the definition of personal data, rights to information and the processing of personal data for AI training. A more far-reaching definition of scientific research is also planned. Under certain conditions, this could allow personal data to be processed without additional consent if this is considered research or innovation.

In the “Technology” category, the companies Fielmann and Apollo Optik were honored. Both companies sell so-called smart glasses, including models from Meta. The glasses have cameras, microphones and speakers and can be connected to the Internet. Elisabeth Niekrenz gave the laudation. The lawyer who specializes in data protection particularly criticizes the fact that recordings from the perspective of the wearer are possible inconspicuously. “This means that anyone can now become a spy.”

Niekrenz refers, among other things, to cases in which women in particular were filmed wearing smart glasses without their knowledge and the recordings were then distributed on social networks. There are also reports about employees of a meta-service provider in Kenya who saw intimate recordings from AI glasses to prepare them for AI training. In addition, a facial recognition function was temporarily discovered in the Meta-AI app, which was later removed. According to Niekrenz, the two optician chains took the devices from a tech niche and offered them in an environment that, for many people, is associated with ordinary glasses.

Deutsche Telekom receives a “preventive” award. The reason is the planned merger with the US subsidiary T-Mobile US. Rena Tangens, political director of the Digitalcourage association, fears that, if designed accordingly, German telecommunications infrastructure could become more subject to US surveillance law in the future. The decisive factor is whether US company parts can gain access to German data - regardless of which server it is stored on. “We don’t want to award a prize until the catastrophe or injustice has already happened,” explains the laudator. That's why you're even happy if the reason for the price no longer applies. The federal government, together with the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), currently holds almost 28.6 percent of Telekom and therefore has a blocking minority. Telekom described the merger reports as speculation.

In the “Civil Society” category, the prize goes to the Regional Church Office of the Evangelical Northern Church. The reason: The church has mandated the use of Microsoft 365 for the regional church in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Over 17,000 users are expected to receive licenses for Microsoft services, and parishes are expected to switch to the Microsoft cloud by 2028. Juror Thilo Weichert, former data protection officer for Schleswig-Holstein, criticized the fact that particularly sensitive data from pastoral care and community work would also be processed. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) found that the use of Microsoft 365 was hardly possible without usage and metadata ending up in the USA in an uncontrolled manner.

Finally, there is another prize from an explicitly youthful perspective. The category “young and monitored” distinguishes the planned social media ban for young people. The article comes from Teckids, a community of children, young people and adults who deal with digital technology. The young people particularly criticize age controls: They could lead to platforms collecting even more personal data about their users. At the same time, those who stick to the rules would be hit.

Teckids compares the planned ban to an amusement park where accidents keep happening: instead of making the dangerous roller coaster safer, access for children and young people would be banned. According to the young people, the platforms should be regulated, safe digital spaces created and free networks like Fediverse promoted. The goal must be digital maturity, not digital exclusion.

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