We announced the biggest violators of our digital rights in 2025 at the Big Brother Awards. Of the five nominees, the winners are... The National Police (public prize) and the Dutch Tax Administration (expert prize)!

Unannounced home visits to activists by the National Police, without legal basis

With the Big Brother Awards, civil rights organisation Bits of Freedom annually calls attention to individuals, businesses and governments who have grossly violated our freedom of communication and privacy. The publics favorite of this, perhaps least coveted, prize of the Netherlands was the National Police this year. She got as much as 30% of the votes. The National Police won for monitoring activists through social media, and then looking up these activists at home, without legal basis.

The police themselves are very unclear about the function and status of these house visits. As a result, people do not know whether they are suspected of anything, or whether the conversation counts as an interrogation, what triggers the home visit, what is being done with what they say and what their rights are at the time. "The police's lack of awareness about this unequal power relationship is appalling," says Evelyn Austin, Director of Bits of Freedom. "In addition, unannounced house visits are extremely intimidating. It can set a threshold for people to exercise their right to demonstrate or to express themselves. You want to prevent the police from knocking on your door."

Citizens still victims from the algorithm use of the Dutch Tax Administration

According to the expert jury members, the Big Brother Awards offers an excellent opportunity to draw attention to violations that may already be known, but which nevertheless receive too little attention. In that light, the jury designates the Dutch Tax Administration as the winner of the Expert Prize. She also gives a special mention to Microsoft, who was nominated for her contribution to the genocide in Palestine from her data center in the Netherlands. According to the jury, it's important that we pay much more attention to this.

The Dutch Tax Administration gets this award for the unlawful use of algorithms. Of the 100 algorithms used, half do not comply with the legal rules. "We spoke with unanimous indignation about the actions of the Dutch Tax Administration," explains the four-headed jury in a report. "It is shocking to see that the Dutch Tax Administration - after the enormous damage of the child benefits scandal - still uses illegal algorithms. Precisely because we know the serious consequences of using discriminatory algorithms by the Dutch Tax Administration, the current use of such algorithms appears to be malicious. It is highly problematic that the Dutch Tax Administration does not learn from her mistakes." If it is up to us, then the tax authorities must immediately comply with the law.

About the Big Brother Awards

The Big Brother Awards was organised by us for the twentieth time this year. With this evening we investigate how privacy and internet freedom are doing in the Netherlands.