Synthesis Essay: Privacy Of Citizens

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.

Privacy is what allows people to feel secure in their surroundings. With privacy, one is allowed to withhold or distribute the information they want by choice, but the ability to have that choice is being violated in today’s society. Benjamin Franklin once said, “He who sacrifices freedom or liberty will eventually have neither.” And that’s the unfortunate truth that is and has occurred in recent years. Privacy, especially in such a fast paced moving world, is extremely vital yet is extremely violated, as recently discovered the NSA has been spying on U.S. citizens for quite a while now; based on the Fourth Amendment, the risk of leaked and distorted individual information, as well as vulnerability to lack of anonymity.

This issue is very concerning for all of China because the government will not allow any opposition to itself. The government is not moderated and therefore has indefinite power. There is nothing to stand in the way of the government doing whatever they want. There are 420,000,000 Internet users in China. That is more than the entire population of the United States. Also, recently there have been some rally cries on the Internet in China that are similar to those of the Middle East/Egypt. China is becoming even stricter on the Internet usage policies because they do not want what happened in Egypt to spread to China. The government has also said that if any reporters come to the supposed rally sites they will either be deported or arrested and sent to jail.

Based on the novel, “1984” written by George Orwell, in some ways our society is similar to “1984’s” society. The novel was about a society in which the government had complete control of its citizen’s lives. Society became a puppet of the government and was incapable of unorthodox thinking. Anything against their rules would result in severe punishment. If an individual was overly disobedient, the punishment could result in exile.

I think we should not give up any of our freedoms for more security. Mass surveillance is now a part of our everyday life. Governments and even companies snoop on us like never before. Under authority under the Section 702, the U.S. government routinely collects and searches the online communications of innocent Americans without a

Introduction The aim in this Extended Essay is to focus on the topic: "To what extent are the means used by the Party (Government) to control people expressed by George Orwell in his novel 1984 different from what has been used in the historical past and the present?". In the Extended Essay I am going to research how the novel is related to our today society, within the aspects of how governments have control over their people. The topic is worthy of researching in order to show that it is not only a fictional novel. That it is actually true that most of the means that are used in the novel are still present today. I will be using the novel 1984 written by George Orwell as well as other internet sources to prove that there is a lot in common

As our society has developed throughout the last century, both morally and technologically, personal privacy has been declining, and a struggle has emerged. The two main sides are presented as those who support the privacy of the individual above all else, and those who believe that the individual’s privacy may be sacrificed in order to better protect the many. What is privacy? Does it pertain to just technology, or is it something more? In George Orwell’s book, “1984,” he foreshadows a world in which privacy almost completely eradicated. It seems as if this world, envisioned by an author in 1949, could come to pass within just a few more decades. If the decline of privacy does not cease, we might be living in a world where nothing we do or

Individual privacy is something that should not have to be taken away in order to have public safety. I understand that some people may feel at ease when they feel like it may be something that could be for the better of society. The generation we live in now is already so open to world because we share everything on social media. So I do not see the reasoning in having to give up individual privacy for the purpose of public safety.

In places where internet restrictions are tough, like China, the government has a right to strike down any articles they want. “China's constitution affords its citizens freedom of speech and press, but the opacity of Chinese media regulations allows authorities to crack down on news stories by claiming that they expose state secrets and endanger the country.” The people of China probably don’t receive the same kind of vital internet leaks about the country as America. For example, the NSA whistleblower, John Snowden, released information that the NSA was using spy programs on the American people and forcing companies to release all phone calls that had been made. If something like this happened in a place like China the information would not have been spread as fast or at all. If we had tougher internet restriction then we might have not of know many things we know

Imagine living in a world were all your actions are under constant supervision? In which the government has full control over your life. A world in where there is no freedom of self expression. Even your own thoughts could be considered a crime. The popular high school novel Nineteen Eighty–four by George Orwell lets the reader experience that world, one of totalitarianism; in which a state has no limits in their authority and attempts to regulate every aspect of public and private life. This book allows students to expand their minds on external oppression, by recognizing the extremes, a government goes to in order to maintain control over their people. A book that illustrates the dangers of conformity, mental coercion, and verbal deception. A worthy book that meets required reading objectives for high school students, an intellectually challenging novel, keeps readers engaged, and helps students think for themselves in the evaluation of governments regulations.

China’s first internet sovereignty white paper was issued May of 2010 and required all internet users in China including foreign organizations and individuals to follow the Chinese laws and regulations. Following that came the Public Pledge on Self-Regulation and Professional Ethics for China Internet Industry which affirmed even stricter rules than those in the white paper of May 2010 (Xu Albert). China makes sure that it’s people will not provoke or question, but simply just follow. Ever since Chinese President Xi Jinping took rule in 2013, all forms of media censorship have fortified. Xi has made it much harder for Chinese people to access information from foreign websites. GreatFire statistics even shows that since Xi took power the amount of blocked sites on the internet has increased by 11% (Crowcroft). The Chinese government will do anything to keep their power under control and thriving, even if it means looking through civilian’s private and personal information. The public is deprived of their privacy and opinion, only left with fear and obedience for their

Now, many Chinese citizens are attempting to access these applications and searches without censorship by “connect[ing] to virtual private networks that provide them with communications channels to servers outside the Chinese mainland” (Bradsher 4). Though, many citizens have found loopholes in order to post their messages to these websites. For example, on Weibo (the Chinese version of twitter), if a user were to post using a specific keyword, the post would automatically be deleted, if not manually by a superior on the site if it slipped through the system. However, because the use of “abbreviations, neologisms, homophones, and homographs” by users, many political satirists, revolutionists, or regular citizens find themselves sliding through the cracks thus escaping the censoring governments reach (Wang and Mark 5). In addition, because the government also changes from time to time, a man named Yu Jia, a government critic stated that “Today's China is very different from Chairman Mao's China. I think then, it used to be like an iron slab, and there was only really one idea. It was completely impermeable. But now, it's more like a fishnet, and there are holes” (Jia, Han and Fu 4). This further proves the argument that legislation in regard to behavior online is too varied in

China is well known for their Great Firewall that blocks numerous of sites from the outside world. However, not many people may know the true extent of China’s censorship on the internet. Most people know China’s block on almost all American social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. China not only censors materials from the outside, but also censors what their citizens post or what they see from Chinese websites. China’s internet is strictly censored and this has resulted in many rebellions from the Chinese citizens; on the other hand, China has become an influential figure for their creations on the internet such as their mobile applications.

“The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better” (Orwell). In human life, we want both privacy and safety. Privacy being the information about what we do everyday, the information about our habits and our hobbies. Safety is just the general security of knowing someone cannot just come into your house, kill you, and get away with it. A majority of the time though we cannot have both privacy and safety, so choosing between the two has been a matter of large debate. Without the safety of our lives, we would not even have privacy so it is obvious which is the better choice, but for some reason, most people outright disagree. This argument shows why all those people are wrong. Safety Is more important than privacy because privacy can affect crime, we can adapt to having less privacy, and in the end; Keeping your life is more important than someone knowing a little bit more about you.

The internet boom that began in the mid-1990s was popular because of the enormous possibility of endless free flowing information. It was built upon the engineering principle of “end-to-end neutrality, an engineering rule of thumb calling for smarts at edge of the network rather than in the middle”1 said Jonathan Zittrain, an associate professor at Harvard. However, web filtering by governments such as China has put an end to the idea of complete freedom on the Internet. For those who are familiar with the authoritarian one-party political system in China, one would hardly be surprised by the Chinese government’s move to censor the internet.