A Czech NGO focusing on defending human rights and individuals’ right to privacy has pointed an accusing finger at the Ministry of Health, calling it the biggest “long-term spy.”
In presenting its annual Big Brother Award on Wednesday, the group Iuridicum Remedium took the “winner” of the not-much-coveted prize to task over its revamping of national health registers, which the group says violates privacy in the way data is processed and kept.
“It’s sad that after more than two years, the situation has not improved while the problem has increased with the adoption of the new law on health services [due to take effect in April],” Kateřina Hlatká, the NGO’s spokesperson, told a news conference.
Iuridicum Remedium also had harsh criticism for the Czech Statistical Office (ČSÚ), the Prague public transport company (DPP) and the national Transport Security Administration (ÚPBD).
The group named the ČSÚ as the second-biggest “spy” over its handling of the ten-year national census, released last month. “In addition to numerous organizational errors, this action was also accompanied by uncertainty, and problems that led to fear as to how the personal information would be filed,” Hlatká said, as cited by the Czech state news agency ČTK.
Iuridicum Remedium also took issue with the DPP’s installation of security cameras and the ÚPBD for allegedly violating passengers’ rights during traffic controls. In a special category of opinion, the head of the Czech Demographic Society (ČDS), Jitka Rychtaříková, was singled out for top honors over her views on collecting data in the national census.
Every year Privacy International and various affiliate human rights groups present the Big Brother Awards to government agencies, private companies and individuals “who have excelled in the violation of our privacy.” The intention is to draw public attention to privacy issues and “related alarming trends in society, especially in data privacy.”
The Czech branch of Iuridicum Remedium handed out its first Big Brother Award in 2005. Its partner organizations include the group German civil and privacy rights group FoeBuD and the Dutch digital rights group Bits of Freedom.
