UK minister fingered in Big Brother awards

THE WINNERS FOR the 6th annual "Big Brother Award" were announced yesterday. What are the Big Brother awards, you say? Set up by London-based civil rights group Privacy International, the Big Brother awards pay homage to the government and private organisations that have done their damndest to invade personal privacy.

A government minister, the right honourable Margaret Hodge, came top of the Big Brother pops for services to Orwellian inventions.

There are five categories for the "gold awards" - "Most Invasive Company," "Most Appalling Project," "Most Heinous Government Organisation," "Worst Public Servant," and the recently renamed "David Blunkett Lifetime Menace Award." The winners of each category will have a golden statue of a boot stamping on someone's head presented in their honour.

A worthy IT-related mention goes out to Vodafone, who are runners up in the Most Appalling Project category for its "systematic default blocking of all 'adult' websites" plan.

L'INQ
List of all winners and runners-up
Official awards page