That's No Phones My Tracker Analysis

How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized. (Orwell 3)

Everyone has always wondered if people were ever watching them. Our technology today is capable to eavesdrop in on anyone’s conversations even if their phones are turned off. In the novel, “1984”, the party INGSOC uses telescreens to watch over the people and always know what they are up to. This denies the people’s rights and privileges to go about their business as they please. The technology we have today is almost exact to what big brother uses in George Orwell’s novel by taking over the public and private parts of our lives.

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

In 2011, it was recorded that the city of London had the highest number of surveillance cameras per resident with 86.2 cameras for every individual. This caused the city to be named as one of the world’s most visually recorded cities. Most people believed that this would allow crimes to be resolved with ease, therefore leading to a decrease in the cities high crime rate. However according to the Metropolitan Police, for every 1000 cameras, less than one crime was solved per year. This lead to a mass debate as to the real use of the thousands of cameras being utilised around the city of London and the

“Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves”(Reagan). In the book, 1984, Winston recognizes the power the government has over the citizens of Oceania. The citizens lack privacy from the government. George Orwell warns society about a government with total control in 1984. Based on Dana Hawkin’s article, “Cheap Video Cameras Are Monitoring Our Every Move”, as well as Beech Etal’s, “The Other Side of the Great Firewall”, society may truly have something to fear in the form of surveillance and information manipulation.

This idea is mostly made up of oneself. Who we are and what makes us, us. “The Constitution, through the Fourth Amendment, protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government (What Does the Fourth Amendment Mean?).” “If we go back to the understanding of why we declared independence from Great Britain, it stemmed from worries about excessive surveillance (The Spirit of the Fourth Amendment—and the NSA's Disregard for It).” Britain at the time was going into people homes to search it for smuggled goods. This also lead to “The poorest man in his cottage may bid defiance to all the forces of the crown. He may be frail. The roof may shake. The winds may blow through it. Storms may enter. Rain may enter. But the King of England cannot enter. All his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement." What is privacy, this can mean many different things to different people.

Privacy; the state of being free from being observed or being disturbed. Things such as credit card companies, ads on television, warnings on the evening news, and even locker searches at school all directly contradict the definition of “privacy”.

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.

the cameras that are used today are used to monitor people in a way of protection. For

The advanced technology makes it possible that our government can have access to any individuals’ private information, including their daily schedules, emails, friend cycles, social network accounts, eating habits, buying behaviors, and the places they frequently visit. Solove finds that the government often uses the way of surveillance to imperceptibly control people’s lives (345). It means that the government has deprived individuals of their freedom in a way that monitors their every move. For instance, people may avoid talking about ISIS on the phone with others under the surveillance because they are afraid of whether their conversation will be taken out of context and misinterpreted by the authorities. Being watched by the government, people may choose to change their behaviors to adapt to the government’s value and interest. Living in a democratic society, people should freely choose what they want to share and what they need to hide. Thus, the government’s surveillance deprives people of their right to live their lives and share their opinions at will, keeping them being controlled by those in power.

One main factor of privacy is that it allows individuals to further explore their independence and individuality. People define themselves by exercising power over information about themselves, being that the United States is a country for the people whether you're Republican, Democratic or Independent. Having the government file and organize personal information is a violation. A free country does not ask people to answer for the choices made and do not have to choose what is shared and what is hidden. What if the government doesn’t protect your information with adequate security, and an identity thief obtains it and uses it to defraud you? Even if you have nothing to hide, the government can cause you a lot of harm (Solove

Within the Constitution of the United States of America, the word “privacy” appears exactly zero times. Not once does the legal document that outlines the social order of the United Sates, define, or explicitly state a “right to privacy” for its citizens. Even with this fact prevailing over society, American citizens still esteem privacy in the highest regard. According to a survey conducted by the PEW Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America, “93 percent of adults say that being in control of who can get information about them is important… 88 percent [of Americans] say it is important that they not have someone watch or listen to them without their

novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. Society in the novel had to face surveillance and

Privacy or lack thereof, in present

“The invasion of privacy — of others’ privacy but also our own, as we turn our lenses on ourselves in the quest for attention by any means — has been democratized.” (Walter Kirn). Kirn points out that a citizen can serve as a ‘little brother’ who watches or shares the private moments of another. Citizens not only fear the powerful government, but also their neighbors, siblings, classmates, etc. “With those children, he thought, that wretched woman must lead a life of terror. Another year, two years, and they would be watching her night and day for symptoms of unorthodoxy.” (Orwell, 24). The citizen's neighbors, coworkers, spouse, and children are all potential spies, and surveillance is