Privacy and safety of citizens is common in today's society, as well as the government looking over their shoulder at all times. As an example, George Orwell wrote a book called, "1984" which in it gave an outlook of society being taken over by a party. Government surveillance is different from protecting and bringing safety to the citizens, it violates their freedom, privacy, and human rights.
Having freedom is what makes the people who they are as humans, and what they are meant to be. Freedom is simple as saying small and easy things, "Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows" (Orwell 84). Before anything else, freedom is the most important thing they can all have, because without it,
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The watch of the government should be to the limit of protecting the citizens, not spying on them, ”Down in the street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no color in anything, except the posters that were plastered everywhere. The black mustachioed face gazed down from every commanding corner. There was one on the house-front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while the dark eyes looked deep into Winston's own” ("1984 Power Quotes"). Citizens needs privacy in public, in private, and in mind. Big brother represents protection, but at the same time it is scary to think that he is “watching you”. Safety is crucial in today’s society, because there are many things that are harmful. ”The ACLU has been at the forefront of the struggle to prevent the entrenchment of a surveillance state by challenging the secrecy of the government’s surveillance and watchlisting practices; its violations of our rights to privacy, free speech, due process, and association; and its stigmatization of minority communities and activists disproportionately targeted by surveillance”("Privacy and Surveillance"). Invading the privacy of others can lead to many serious consequences. If one is trying to protect another, it is their responsibility to do it correctly. Privacy is
According to “A Surveillance Society” By William E. Thompson there are camera everywhere, watching everything you do at all times. Cameras are found everywhere and are used by everyone, including the governments of the world who use it the most to track its citizens and potential threats to the safety of their nation. People are more willing to be watched in order to feel safer everywhere they go such as the supermarket to your own workplace. Governments can now look into your email, travel records, credit history and your personal life without your knowledge of them ever doing so, even your neighbors can now easily buy tools to spy on others or to protect themselves from danger; Things such as security cameras
Government surveillance is beneficial in moderation, but can quite easily become excessive. A well-known example of this is the controversy regarding the NSA monitoring U.S. citizens discreetly on American soil. This unwarranted watch crosses the fine line between monitoring criminal suspects for security, and blatant overreach of authority in spying common citizens. The personal infringement of information has been commonly associated with the NSA’s PRISM, but their MUSCULAR program is much more disconcerting. According to Harry Bruinius in “Why Tech Giants Are Now Uniting Against U.S. Surveillance”:
In the novel 1984, George Orwell uses imagery and word choice to demonstrate how much people value their privacy. This is proven when the citizens learn that the Police Patrol and the government are spying on them in their homes without them knowing. George Orwell states that he knows there is someone snooping in his windows all the time. Night or day, it does not matter. He knows for a fact they are watching his every move. This goes to show that the Police Patrol and government have no boundaries and do not respect their citizens privacy in any way. They are trying to catch them doing anything they are not supposed to be doing. Everybody should feel safe when they are in their home. No one wants to always feel like someone is constantly
In 1984 George Orwell describes how no matter where you go in Oceania there is
In 1984 George Orwell describes how no matter where you go in Oceania there is
Government surveillance is made with the intent to keep American society safe, usually made in response to major terrorist attacks to prevent future terrorist attacks. After the tragic events of 9/11 the Us government took measures to prevent future terrorist attacks from happening. One major act enacted was the Patriot act.
To further validate my point, George Orwell wrote a book called 1984, which presents the reader with the concept of “Big Brother”. The book introduces “Big Brother” as a symbol of what government surveillance is like. Orwell, expresses his views on privacy by creating the concept of Big Brother which takes government surveillance to another level; in a negative sense. In the book, Big Brother is able to
The chronic surveillance of the population is supposed to be for our own safety, to watch out for terrorists who might want to cause us harm. However, people are losing their freedoms. Corporations play too big a part in governments. Wikilinks should not
Total surveillance. Complete obedience. Absolute authority. The world of 1984 scared me when I first read the book last year. Never before had a book made me think so deeply about individuality, society, and government. 1984, a manifestation of my nightmares, described a totalitarian police state of resolute submission. The horror came when I looked upon our own society, and Big Brother glared back at me. We live in a world where every phone call, every text, every search, and every email can be monitored and recorded by our own government. The National Security Agency, or the NSA, was originally proposed to monitor threats outside of the United States, but the NSA began domestic surveillance shortly after the horrific terror attacks of 2001. This cleared the way for warrantless, unlawful tracking of American citizens. Initially, the program collected only the data of high-risk individuals in America with direct links to Al-Qaeda. Now, however, government data collection has spread to millions of otherwise innocent citizens. Government surveillance is a direct violation of the privacy of American citizens that is dangerous, immoral, and unlawful.
The US government needs to find a happy medium when it comes to surveillance. According to the ACLU, “Our Constitution and democratic system demand that the government be transparent and accountable to the people, not the other way around” (ACLU 1). Of course the government needs to protect the people, but at the same time the government needs to respect the privacy of its constituents. The government is violating the people’s rights to things such as rights to privacy, free speech, due process, and association (ACLU 1). These rights have been paid for through the blood and personal sacrifice of many brave men and women throughout American history. These rights cannot be surrendered so that the government’s job can be made easier. Security is important, but the rights of Americans are too hefty of a price to pay for it. Privacy, free speech, due process, and association are critical components of American society and without it, Americans’ lives and democracy are undermined. (Russel 3)
Imagine always being watched. No one is visibly there, but there is always a conscious thought that someone is watching and listening to everything. That is the world of Oceania in George Orwell’s novel, 1984. The dystopia of Oceania has an overruling government called the Party and leader, Big Brother. Big Brother implements different ways to monitor his citizens. These security measures always watch and always listen to the citizens. Big Brother believes that he is protecting his people, but he is invading their lives. Monitoring citizens is valid if the purpose is strictly to protect them from a threat. The government does not have the right to monitor citizens if their motives are to invade people’s privacy and control them.
In the book 1984, by George Orwell surveillance has many similarities in our society today. Now a day the government can spy on anyone they want which means nobody has privacy on their phones. Surveillance is something most people do not believe because most people believe that when they are on technology they have all their privacy. Technology takes us closer to the world of big brother because through technology Big brother watches them through surveillance cameras.
Someone mite argue and add government surveillance is national security, here to help us, the citizen with protection, and to protect our streets and even our homes from crime by using there equipment .For example using their surveillance to wiretaps the phones, defeating organized crime, and tracking phone calls and again stopping terrorist attacks. I don’t believe the government needs to watch our every move, or if it even possible, but there is a definite benefit in allowing the government to watch us with out our consent when becomes towards homes.
Over the decades, as technology advanced, surveillance became easier and easier. In the 21st century, people live in the world of ubiquitous surveillance, where everything becomes collected, saved, searched, correlated and analyzed. Surveillance generally means to keep close watch over someone or something. While a root word in surveillance is veil, which portrays imagery as saving face, or hiding. The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and other federal agencies are engaging in the extensive surveillance to fight crime and reduce the threat of terrorism. Not only does surveillance fight crime, it proves the honesty and humility of people in the work office or on the streets. However, surveillance threatens privacy and liberty because it monitors individuals, meaning that certain information may not be kept secret. This frightens countless people because the thought of being watched sparks a controversy of the 4th amendment of the constitution. The 4th amendment protects the right against unreasonable searches and seizures. Surveillance challenges the privacy and liberty of individuals; nevertheless, it upholds the protection and security of citizens from terrorism and crime.
What does privacy means? “Privacy can be defined as ‘that area of a man’s life which, in any given circumstances, a reasonable man with an understanding of the legitimate needs of the community would think it wrong to invade” (Aquilina, 2010). For example, when people walk on street or play in parks, shop in a public market place, study or talk on phone in public library, they want it to be free in doing all this. However, if the people find them being monitored on CCTV cameras, they feel it uncomfortable to stay in that environment anymore. On one hand, the government is taking advantage of