PostFinance: safe ATMs, but annoying voice-recogntion software, the Big Brother Awards reckon.
Keystone / Georgios Kefalas
The “Big Brother Awards” for excellence in how not to manage client data have been announced, with several prominent Swiss institutions winning the uncoveted prizes.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA/dos
Like the Razzies for data management, the Big Brother AwardsExternal link distinguish organisations and institutions performing particularly badly in areas of data protection.
In Zurich on Thursday, where the Swiss editions of the awards were announced for the 11th time – and the first time after a 10-year pause – several well-known Swiss companies were tagged.
In the “public” category, Postfinance took the honours for the vocal recognition software it has used to identify its 2.9 million clients since September 2018. Awards organisers said that the opt-out rather than opt-in nature of the software, the lack of information for customers, and the questionable role of Israeli software provider Nice were particularly worthy of mention.
More headaches for state bodies
A Zurich cantonal court took first place in the “state” prize: it authorised police to use snooping software to track the computers and telephones of suspects “in the absence of indisputable legal evidence”, Big Brother Awards said.
Finally, the Federal Office or Public Health (FOPH) came out on top in the “public-private partnership” category, for using e-dossiers deemed not safe enough to manage patient data.
“The centralised and uncrypted end-to-end architecture [of the e-dossier system] risks ending in catastrophe,” the awards organisers wrote. They also recommended that patients should be consulted about the digitalisation of their data, something that should remain “optional”.
The prizes are organised by the Chaos Computer Club, the Digital Society organisation, and the Pretty Easy Privacy foundation.
Report finds serious security flaws in Swiss hospital information systems
This content was published on
The IT systems of several Swiss hospitals suffer from serious security flaws, according to the National Testing Institute for Cybersecurity (NTC).
Cost of leisure activities rises dramatically in Switzerland
This content was published on
The Swiss paid more for leisure activities in December. Prices for vacation apartments, package tours and cable cars rose significantly.
New Swiss epidemic surveillance centre inaugurated
This content was published on
The Centre for Pathogen Bioinformatics was inaugurated in Bern on Thursday. It aims to improve epidemics monitoring in Switzerland using genomic data.
This content was published on
Switzerland, as a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), signed a free trade agreement with Thailand during WEF.
This content was published on
The federal audit office has criticised the Swiss government for poor planning of the procurement of six drones from an Israeli supplier.
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
How e-voting became a fight for democracy
This content was published on
After years of tests, Swiss e-voting is at a crossroads. The government wants to extend it; a cross-party campaign wants to stop it altogether.
Your employer might be watching you. Should you care?
This content was published on
The new wave of workplace data analytics is raising tough questions in Switzerland with its strong culture of trust and privacy.
This content was published on
Switzerland’s data protection and information commissioner says he wants to inform the public about the misuse and abuse of personal digital data.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.