Stupid Security Contest 2003 Winners Announced

Privacy International

08/04/2003

PRIVACY WATCHDOG ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF COMPETITION TO FIND THE WORLD'S MOST STUPID SECURITY MEASURE

Global quest has identified absurd and pointless security requirements

8th April 2003

Embargo: Immediate release

Privacy International today announced the results of its competition to find the worlds most pointless, intrusive and egregious security measures. The competition, launched in February, attracted almost 5,000 nominations from 35 countries. While the air security sector dominated the competition, nominations arose from almost all areas of private and public sector activity. The winners include JFK Airport, T-Mobile (UK), Michigan Correctional facilities and the Australian Government.

The "Stupid Security" award was judged by a distinguished international panel of security and privacy experts and is intended to highlight the absurdities of the security industry. Privacy International's director, Simon Davies, said his group took the initiative because of 'innumerable' security initiatives around the world that had absolutely no genuine security benefit.

"The extraordinary number of nominations indicates that the situation has become ridiculous" said Mr Davies. "Security has become the smokescreen for incompetent and robotic managers the world over".

'The situation has become more than an irritation to the public. It has become an outright danger".

The winners are:

Most Egregiously Stupid Award

Winner - The Australian Government for a litany of pointless, irritating and self-serving security measures

Runner-Up - Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov for the 'Propiska' Identity Papers

Most Inexplicably Stupid Award

Winner - Philadelphia International Airport for over-reaction to a bottle of cologne

Runner-Up - Heathrow Airport for quarantining a quantity of green tea

Most Annoyingly Stupid Award

Winner - T-Mobile (UK) for pointless and idiotic financial security measures

Runner-Up - Bay Area Rapid Transport (Bart) for closing its restrooms.

Most Flagrantly Intrusive Award

Winner - Delta Terminal at JFK Airport for forcing a nursing mother to drink her own breast milk

Runner-Up - Carson City Correctional Facility, Michigan for forcing women visitors to wear bras.

Most Stupidly Counter Productive Award

Winner - San Francisco General Hospital for blind idiocy in its identity checking procedures

Runner-Up San Francisco International Airport for endangering the public

Dishonourable Mention

The New Yorker Hotel, New York for aggressive, unnecessary and meaningless security measures.

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NOTES TO EDITORS

- Privacy International (PI) is a human rights group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance by governments and corporations. PI is based in London, and has an office in Washington, D.C. Together with members in 40 countries, PI has conducted campaigns throughout the world on issues ranging from wiretapping and national security activities, to ID cards, video surveillance, data matching, police information systems, and medical privacy, and works with a wide range of parliamentary and inter-governmental organisations such as the European Parliament, the House of Lords and UNESCO.

- PI's website is www.privacyinternational.org The award page can be found at: http://www.privacyinternational.org/activities/stupidsecurity/

- The competition was judged by a panel of well-known security experts, public policy specialists, privacy advocates and journalists. Details are on the PI competition page above.

- Simon Davies can be reached at simon@privacy.org

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