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Privacy In Cory Doctorow's Little Brother

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Am I being watched right now? In a world of computers and the Internet, lack of privacy is rapidly becoming an immeasurable concern. In this millennial, our society is filled with millions of people. Throughout the years, we have adopted privacy as an essential and fundamental right. It is the governments job to protect their citizens in their beliefs, emotions, sensations and thoughts. Cory Doctorow’s novel, Little Brother, is a novel that takes place in the early 2000’s speculating the effects to a terrorists attack similar to that of 9/11, in regard to civil liberties. Doctorow claims, “This book is meant to be something you do, not just something you read.” He takes this opportunity to provide readers an education of security systems, computer …show more content…

He thoroughly believes privacy is a right and he will find ways around “security” measures whenever possible to ensure that privacy. As Doctorow states, “There’s something really liberating about having some corner of your life that’s yours, that no one gets to see except you. It’s like nudity or taking a dump. There’s nothing shameful, mentally sick or weird about either of them.” (57). He is relating privacy to something we can all be able to comprehend; using the bathroom. There is nothing constitutionally wrong with using the bathroom, but who would volunteer to do so buck naked in the middle of times square? Relating to personal data and using the bathroom Doctorow feels “It’s not about doing something shameful, It’s about doing something private. It’s about your life belonging to you. A clear example of the emotional appeal is when Doctorow describes the scene where Marcus is released from prison and returns to his home. He starts up his laptop he had assembled himself and noticed something was wrong with it. When he looked more closely, he realized that there was an object underneath the cord. Doctorow then describes Marcus’s overwhelming anxiety and paranoia taking over. Feeling as if he was nearly out of his skin, and back in jail stalked by entities who had him utterly in their

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