The Big Brother Awards (USA) are the American version of the international Big Brother Awards. The prizes are given annually to authorities, companies, organizations, and individuals that have done the most to threaten or violate people's privacy, or that have disclosed people's personal data to third parties. They are awarded by Privacy International, and generally the ceremony is at the annual Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference.
The awards are intended to draw public attention to privacy issues and related alarming trends in society, especially in data privacy.
They are named after the George Orwell character of Big Brother from the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, where all persons are subjected to total and ruthless supervision in a totalitarian state supposedly controlled by that character.