Dangers Of Surveillance

Is Our Technology Taking Us Close to the World of Big Brother? “Big Brother is watching you” (1984, Orwell). This line has a lot of meaning to it, especially in our current era now. This quote comes from the book “1984.”

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

Historically the Junction Triangle and Bloordale area was a very industrialized place, with many factories and rail lines running through it. Nowadays most of the factories are gone but the rails remain. The biggest issue going on there is Metrolinx’s proposal for the Davenport Grade Separation, which is an examination of possible solutions to the Davenport Diamond, which is the biggest train track intersections in North America. The current plan is an overpass that will run along Davenport road. The intention is to bypass the freight line that runs parallel to Dupont street, this will remove a key bottleneck in transportation. Many folks in Junction Triangle have purchased properties which had relatively low property value, partially due to

In Brian Trent’s article, Technology and Tomorrow: A Challenge to Liberty, Trent describes how electronic surveillance has increased and how it will continue to spread amongst people. In Craig Silverman’s article, Smile, Big Brother’s watching, Silverman explains that the amount of time and surveillance that corporations conduct over employees is increasing, but having some negative effects. Both of these articles explain how electronic surveillance will increase so much, that almost everyone will be able to be seen when not in the open [monitored]. In this essay I’ll be going more in depth to describe both articles and I’ll explain whether I agree with their arguments and why.

The problem is that as we begin to see examples of heavy surveillance in our real life, it is as if no one truly cares enough to stop it. We all still stroll on social media, and we pay for speeding tickets that we get sent in the mail. I can not help but wonder if this is the beginning of life like the one in “1984.” While I am optimistic that our society is strong and our government is not cruel, my experience of The Game reminded me of the importance of remaining vigilant against encroachments upon personal freedom and autonomy. Much like Winston’s futile resistance against the party, it is crucial to challenge oppressive systems and advocate for individual

Orwell's eerie foresight only continues when Winston notices a Police Patrol helicopter darting from window to window, looking into people's windows. This type of surveillance in clearly illegal today, and would be noticed immediately, but in the last 50 years, satellites and unmanned drone aircraft have taken over the fictional role of the Police Patrols. Public satellites that are 10 to 15 years old currently can produce digital images with 1-meter resolution. Military satellites can supposedly produce images with 10-centimeter resolution, meaning that `Big Brother' could theoretically follow you from your house to your work to a restaurant and home again without you even knowing you were being watched. This type of surveillance is most likely being used mostly overseas, and not on Americans, but its mere existence should be a clear signal to us that our age has not avoided the surveillance pitfalls of 1984.

Neil M. Richards states that, due to surveillance, people can feel unsafe when they are talking about controversial or new ideas. They are afraid of what the government would say, which is instilling a fear that they are not allowed to say what they want. (harvardlawreview.org) Hina Shamsi and Matthew Harwood, on the FBI’s promise that they do not want to infiltrate innocent people’s privacy, say “Nor is it any comfort that the FBI promises to protect the innocent by investigating ‘suspicious’ people in secret.” (tomdispatch.com) Some have no idea, and they are losing their rights to knowing what the government does to them. Essentially, the basic rights one is given are being slowly taken away, surveillance being a major cause of that. Although you may think that just because America has stayed safe that that means surveillance works, but it is a false cause fallacy, surveillance is not the main reason America has not been attacked. Keeping allies and fighting peacefully has kept this country away from being

Today’s invasion of privacy from American citizens could be considered Orwellian. “Orwellian… might refer to a totalitarian government, a government that tries to control all the actions and beliefs of its citizens. It might refer to the use of surveillance technology, such as hidden cameras and microphones, as part of that effort to control” (Edlund, 2016, p. 53). Another reason why citizens should be worried is that there are new technologies advancing each day. Every day a better technological device is invented and it only gets better, advancing ti’s way up to the top.

Unless someone is wanted by the police, everyone tends to live their lives in peace and normalcy. The average person wakes up, takes a shower, eats breakfast, and then prepare themselves for the daily activities that await them. The last thing to cross someone’s mind is whether anyone is watching their every move or not. However, should we not be worried about how easy it is for the government to gain access into the private lives of every citizen? Is it not scary how every move is recorded and carefully watched for suspicious activity? In George Orwell’s 1984, he suggests that each and every day the government is taking more extreme measures to get an insight into the lives of anyone and everyone.

The novel 1984 by George Orwell is considered to be a timeless political and cultural satire. It expresses many different opinions and observations about the evolution of government power, and how much it has the potential to control people. Many people argue that the predictions made by Orwell are becoming a reality in today’s society. These arguments force all of us to ask ourselves an important question. Is the society we observe in 1984 a mirror image of our society today?

In modern Western societies the notion that surveillance is spreading while privacy is eroding is very well alive. Throughout history it has never been easier to access information about a specific person or groups of people then it is now. With technology available to almost everyone in modern society the ability to track, view, and gather information is greater than it has ever been. Many municipalities, companies, and even private home owners have implemented Closed Circuit Television in order to surveil people within the area they choose. Applications on phones, Computers, and Smart televisions are all things people use daily that surveil and track you, anything you send or view through technology can potentially be recorded for others to see. A person’s entire day can be tracked by simply following their footprints through technology, this means that “flying under the radar” is almost impossible unless you never leave your home and do not use any sort of technology. A big factor in collecting and storing data that surveillance technologies capture has come as a result of the Internet. Its worldwide availability has made people more educated through the sharing of knowledge, however, we have also given up a great deal of our privacy because of it.

Are the controversies true? Am I always being watched? These questions are typical questions that most Americans might be asking themselves for the past few years. For years, the American eye has been opened to everyday threats of being watched, monitored and spied on by the government. For some, this may not have come off as shocking as it may have had to other, but the problem is still there and problem is still there. The problem Americans face is the problem of being under constant surveillance by our “trusted” leaders. In America, government surveillance needs to be reduced.

Surveillance and the right to privacy have far reaching consequences and implications. In fact, both involve even more topics such as encryption, hacking, and leaks of sensitive information. Sure it is easy to conclude from the sources included in this piece that surveillance does diminish personal privacy to a certain extent, but it’s better to deduce that more people should understand and be aware of how serious of an issue this really is. There are people who seek to promote and diminish surveillance and consumer’s control of their own information and that contributes to the complexity of this growing problem. The research done so far only touches the surface of why it is important for people to learn about protecting themselves from unwanted spying, yet it still needs to expand into explaining more in depth the goals of the government agencies that encourage surveillance programs. As of now, after reviewing all these sources, I think it is important to stress that this issue is not simple. Moreover, is it worth it for an individual to sacrifice personal liberties such as privacy for "safety" through increased surveillance? Consumer privacy should not be sacrificed to ensure public safety since this would undermine the personal liberties of millions of

Though the consequences of citizen’s actions through technology today are not as severe or are non punishable, they do not take the government’s surveillance as seriously as the citizens of Oceania did in 1984. One NSA system can reach about 75% of all US Internet traffic, communications by foreigners and Americans (Gorman n. pag.). The US government's defense to surveillance claims is that the justification is National Security (Calamur n. pag.)., and this may be true, but the question of the freedom to privacy ratio, as a free nation, is still undecided. One way surveillance is now even more accessible is due to Google Glass. "With Google Glass, nobody's pointing a camera... phone. You no longer know if you're being filmed... an unspoken social rule is being violated" (Brown 42). and gives the government the ability to see from the point of view of anyone. With most every person you meet having quick access to some sort of recordable technology, it is easy to have your actions recorded or documented without your knowledge. The information can be easily spread around the world without your knowing or permission with just a simple touch. As said before, “.....an unspoken social rule is being violated” (Brown 42), taking away the sense of privacy and security felt by many Americans. Another form of surveillance, used by specifically the NYPD, is the use of undercover cops. Since The Occupy Wall Street

Individuals claim that the states throughout our country are always being watched by the Government; our every move, our every purchase, and even our every commute to and from work are being monitored. Welsh and Farrington(2004) both agree in explaining that the closed-circuit television(CCTV) is doing the exact same thing. "America is on the verge of becoming a 'surveillance society' (Stanley and Steinhardt, 2003:1)" (Welsh, 2004: 2). George Orwell discusses that “Every single technical device that has been invented, restored, or refurbished in the last ten years is becoming an increasing negative towards individuals freedom of interference”, but Welsh and Farrington seem to disagree. "Fact is, there are no longer any barriers to the Big Brother regime portrayed by George Orwell" (Welsh, 2004:2).