Privacy In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four '

1984, a novel by George Orwell, represents a dystopian society in which the people of Oceania are surveilled by the government almost all the time and have no freedoms. Today, citizens of the United States and other countries are watched in a similar way. Though different technological and personal ways of keeping watch on society than 1984, today’s government is also able to monitor most aspects of the people’s life. 1984 might be a dystopian society, but today’s condition seems to be moving towards that controlling state, where the citizens are surveilled by the government at all times.

Many Americans do not realize that at any time of the day the government could be observing their “private” lives. On the other hand, some individuals have predicted the government would develop a form of constant surveillance, like George Orwell who forecasted a futuristic government, which used technology as a relentless eye on the members of the society in the novel 1984. 1984 was correct, to an extent, in predicting that the government would increase their usage of technology to constantly observe their people, whether in public or their private homes.

It has been more than seventy years since the release of George Orwell’s 1984, a novel that imparts a lesson on the consequences of government overreach. However, today that novel reads like an exposé of government surveillance. Privacy and national security are two ideas competing for value on a balance; if one is more highly valued, the other carries less weight. Government desire to bolster national security by spying on its own citizens-- even the law abiding ones-- is what leads to the inverse relationship between civil liberties and security. In times of a perceived threat to the nation, national security becomes highly prized and people lose privacy. One case is terrorist attacks. 9/11 caused an understandable kneejerk reaction in Americans to bolster protection. Some of the the measures taken were observable, like greater security at airports, but others attempted to increase national security in a more intrusive way. Privacy should be more highly valued than national security, and America has reached a point where that is no longer true.

Since the very beginning of history, our privacy rights have substantially been violated. Although privacy is a fundamental right, the government somehow discovers methods of maneuvering around those rights and violating them. In the novel 1984, by George Orwell, privacy was taken to no extent. Every move of every citizen was being watched. No place was safe.

As Marlon Brando once said, “Privacy is not something that I’m merely entitled to , it’s an absolute prerequisite.” In George Orwell's 1984, the people of Oceania had no privacy. They were being controlled and being monitor by a totalitarian government known as Big Brother. In today's Society, the National Social Agency (NSA) spies on us through our phones, computers, cameras, etc. The novel 1984

Imagine living in a world where you could not make your own choices, or be your own person. In the novel 1984, this is exactly what happened. In a place called Oceania where there is no such thing as privacy and personal freedom (Roelofs), the main character Winston Smith, is living a strict life under the demanding party known as Big Brother. Winston decides that he wants his life back to normal and tries to rebel against the Party. Meanwhile, he is thought to be a lunatic because he is living his life how a normal person would, but everyone else is now living under what is thought to be a utopia society. Throughout the book Winston strongly disagrees with the fact that every second he is being keep under surveillance. Though at some points he believes he is being discrete, in reality someone is always watching. In 1984, George Orwell depicts the lack of privacy and loss of individualism which affects the characters and the society as a whole.

The novel opens with a portrayal of the cutting edge society of Oceania. It is a very automated, dispassionate express that is controlled by the iron hand of a solitary gathering fascism. Life in Oceania is not charming. The physical hardship and the bomb assaults on the city where Winston lives. Winston Smith speaks to the dejection and distance of the person in an immense society controlled by machines and telescreens, which oversee each and every part of life. It is a general public that denies fellowship, friendship, love, trust, and family ties. It is likewise a general public where nobody is permitted to think against or address the Decision Party. Neighbors and kids are instructed to keep an eye on others and report any despicable conduct to the powers. Living under a dictator, Winston Smith is living in

Big Brother is watching (Orwell). The truth is that anyone reading this paper from the internet has the right to know that someone thousands of miles away could very well be watching (Orwell). On top of this shocking fact, a victim would never even know they were being watched. George Orwell knew what he was talking about when he wrote of a society in which all things are monitored by the government and an individual's right to privacy is breached for the sake of peace and safety. Some might even say America is such a society today. The citizens in the USA believe that their government is doing all in its power to protect them, but when do national security measures such as spying and monitoring become

This artifact is a video in which government surveillance is once again discussed. This artifact was published to youtube and features reporter Joe Biggs. This was published in September of 2014 and the reporter is speaking to victims of the situation, people who are subjected to lack of privacy due to government surveillance.

Violation and infraction are words that have a strong meaning to those who were of the Jewish decent during the twentieth century. Individuals in European countries that had Jewish blood were rigorously despised by, prejudiced against, and under the command of Germany’s dictator, Adolf Hitler. Similarly portrayed in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the citizens of Oceania have no privacy or human rights. During Orwell’s time, the world was evolving to become higher in advancements and systematization. It is factors such as transgression and the separation of the higher powers in comparison to the lower powers that people faced.

A world beyond what George Orwell could imagine has been created in modern society through the use of not only government surveillance, but also corporate and consumer spying where users are often unaware of spying.. 1984 is set in a neo-communist society where the government controls production of goods and spies on its citizens in order to maintain power. In the modern era, surveillance takes a different form. Often the methods for spying on citizens in the US do not involve a direct line from the NSA to the citizen’s home, it usually takes a detour through a commercial setting. By partnering with major companies such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon, government surveillance programs are able to collect far more information than could be gained by simply tapping telephone lines. This is more disturbing since many companies including Verizon, AT&T, Apple, and Amazon do not require a warrant to supply information to investigators, and do not notify users of data requests.

In George Orwell’s, Nineteen Eighty-Four, the people of the country, Oceania live under a totalitarian government. This iconic political novel serves as a cautionary tale for future governments at the time it was written in 1949. Although, many countries are democracies now, the world hasn’t completely learned its lesson in over half a century since the novel has been published. Alarmingly, the United States has begun to reflect similar traits founded in Orwell’s fictitious and terrifying country, Oceania in relation to themes of patriotism, control of media, and surveillance.

This essay will contain facts, but many will come from others opinions. To provide history and background information I will be using “Pew Research Center”. This website gave me a timeline on when the government began surveillance. The year a governmental agency began to oversee our activity on the internet. When NASA decided to pin phone calls off of United States citizens. The information I found on their website provided a detail overview with an explanation on why the government choose to take this route. Once I inform readers and bring them up to date. I will provide articles on research including an interview from “CNN” and “The New York Times”. Three of these articles contain research on experience and thoughts of government surveillance. One of the three articles are by Robert Sloan, “The Harm of Merely Knowing…” gave insight to the subject by breaking it down into four categories. Another article” Fear of Politics” will introduce outside experience of United States government involving Russian surveillance. The Russian regime has used government surveillance to prevent protest. The author of this article tells a story of a man who suffered from the death of government surveillance. To provide some insight onto the extreme side of surveillance the novel “1984” was mentioned in my article “Big Broth can watch us”. I will use his article by Daniel J. Power to show correlation between the books

In the modern era, most everybody all over the United States has a phone, computer or at least heard of them and what they do. These intimate technologies have become an inseparable part of life because they are vital to nearly every aspect of life, especially in developed countries. This dependence, however, makes everyone vulnerable to surveillance by governments. Governments have unrestricted access to how we use our phones and computers; they can track our calls and assess its content including our texts. This uncontrolled invasion of people’s privacy could lead to a dystopian society much like the one portrayed in George Orwell’s 1984.

Imagine being under surveillance every day and every second of the day. A stranger always knowing where you are and what you are doing at all times. It is really terrifying to know someone is ALWAYS watching, yet many people brush off this fact. We live in America “the land of freedom” but are we really free? Today is the future, and we have advanced in technology, all the way from robots automatically mopping your floor to having a personal assistant that assists your every need or question you have right on your phone, but is that all they do? Or do they do more than we know? Technology today is marketed as if we need it, but in reality, they’re sold to us in order to violate our privacy and help the government spy on us.