25 Sep 2026, Hechelei Bielefeld

BigBrotherAwards 2026

Spectacles are stalkers, the Church is a sinner and the Omnibus has no brakes

As in previous years, data rogues worked hard in 2026 to get us one step closer to the dystopia of total surveillance. In the tight race for a Big Brother Award, the German Interior Minister, Alexander Dobrindt prevailed – with the plan to create a “fully transparent” population through the tax ID. Congratulations, it is his second award in just as many years! The two leading highstreet opticians, Apollo Optik and Fielmann are awarded as dealers of the stalker glasses by Ray-Ban/Meta. The North-German regional Protestant Church Office has entered into a pact with Mephisto – we beg your pardon, with Microsoft. The European Commission has kickstarted a “Digital Omnibus” that is about to run over our fundamental rights. And Deutsche Telekom has an unprecedented achievement – they receive a preventive BBA: for a planned merger that would turn a US intelligence agency wet dream into reality. Last but not least, the Teckids community has something to contribute as well: they criticise social media bans for young people which, ironically, would disadvantage free alternatives such as the Fediverse.

The (unfortunate) Awardees

Civil Society (2026)

Northern Protestant Church

The Northern Protestant Church forces its parishes to use Microsoft services – and thereby it surrenders sensitive data about its members’ religious and civil activities to the US corporation. This sacrifice if data sovereignty is…

Europe/EU (2026)

Digital Omnibus

The EU’s legislative project, “Digital Omnibus” is set to erode EU data protection laws, and declare personal data as unowned property. The beneficiaries are Big Tech and the advertising industry: They would be able to appropriate…

Laudatio
preventive (2026)

Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom, the former state telecommunications provider, receives a preventive BigBrotherAward for their plan to merge with T‑Mobile US, their own American subsidiary. This deal – depending on the specifics – could cause…

Laudatio
young & surveilled (2026)

Social Media Bans for Young People

The Teckids community criticises social media bans for young people: They protect nobody and do not solve any of the problems. Age checks require that even more personal data are disclosed, and this affects mostly those who want…

Laudatio

Jury

Elisabeth Niekrenz am Redner.innenpult der BBAs 2025.

Elisabeth Niekrenz

lawyer
Dr. Thilo Weichert am Redner.innepult der BigBrotherAwards 2021.

Dr. Thilo Weichert

Netzwerk Datenschutzexpertise, DVD
Frank Rosengart am Redner.innenpult der BigBrotherAwards 2021.

Frank Rosengart

Chaos Computer Club
Rena Tangens am Redner.innenpult der BigBrotherAwards 2021.

Rena Tangens

Digitalcourage
Portraitaufnahme von Ralf Bendrath mit Blauverlauf im Hintergrund.

Ralf Bendrath

political scientist, guest speaker
Logo Teckids

Teckids

guest contribution
Sektgläser mit Sekt und Orangensaft gefüllt.

We would like to thank all helpers, the cooperating organizations and as well as all donors.

To the complete acknowledgement

About BigBrotherAwards

In a compelling, entertaining and accessible format, we present these negative awards to companies, organisations, and politicians. The BigBrotherAwards highlight privacy and data protection offenders in business and politics, or as the French paper Le Monde once put it, they are the “Oscars for data leeches”.

Organised by (among others):

BigBrother Awards International (Logo)

BigBrotherAwards International

The BigBrotherAwards are an international project: Questionable practices have been decorated with these awards in 19 countries so far.