The Creation Of A Surveillance State

In today’s society we are being watched way too much. Some of the times we are being watched, we know about it and other times, we don’t. The government, with a few clicks of a button, can watch what websites you go to, your text messages, even the pictures you send to your grandmother last Christmas, without your knowledge of them doing so. They hold too much power over surveillance of U.S. citizens. There are plenty of incidents where the NSA (National Security Agency) was caught taking files of citizens’ messages,

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.

and what they are equipped to do. Some of these devices are able to scan and analyze , what they

The book 1984 is a prediction of what the world would be like in the future. The prediction of the future in this book was made all by the writer's imagination. In reality, there are a few scenarios that are evident in today’s society that the writer predicted. For example, in 1984 there is a lot of invasion of privacy that occurs. Although in the book it is much more serious than today, there are times that the government is able to invade your privacy if they have a warrant or if there is suspicion. A serious case that caused issues for many people is when the government was accused of tapping into phones to try and stop terrorists. Many people found this to be a serious invasion of privacy, while others found it settling that the government was trying to protect the nation.

1984 has come to life in many cases for the United States. One of the big issues is the public’s privacy in the US, or lack of it in better words. The government spies in on its people in more ways than one, and it’s not just one country now. It seems that all over the world citizens are losing freedom in ways they never thought possible. A quote from 1984, “War is Peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”(Orwell 4), shows how the government in 1984 wanted people to accept slavery as a part of life, even if that meant spying in on the citizens every waking moment of their lives. In a world where the government turns children against their parents, telescreens monitoring people's lives at home, and thought police

Ever since the American public was made aware of the United States government’s surveillance policies, it has been a hotly debated issue across the nation. In 2013, it was revealed that the NSA had, for some time, been collecting data on American citizens, in terms of everything from their Internet history to their phone records. When the story broke, it was a huge talking point, not only across the country, but also throughout the world. The man who introduced Americans to this idea was Edward Snowden.

Government surveillance in the past was not a big threat due to the limitations on technology; however, in the current day, it has become an immense power for the government. Taylor, author of a book on Electronic Surveillance supports, "A generation ago, when records were tucked away on paper in manila folders, there was some assurance that such information wouldn 't be spread everywhere. Now, however, our life stories are available at the push of a button" (Taylor 111). With more and more Americans logging into social media cites and using text-messaging devices, the more providers of metadata the government has. In her journal “The Virtuous Spy: Privacy as an Ethical Limit”, Anita L. Allen, an expert on privacy law, writes, “Contemporary technologies of data collection make secret, privacy invading surveillance easy and nearly irresistible. For every technology of confidential personal communication…there are one or more counter-technologies of eavesdropping” (Allen 1). Being in the middle of the Digital Age, we have to be much more careful of the kinds of information we put in our digital devices.

In the Present day Americans face many privacy issues, these same issues are very similar to the privacy issues highlighted in Orwell’s the book 1984. These issues are turning America into the same type of totalitarian Society that Orwell created in his book. “Lewis Beals from CNN news said that we are living in 1984 with all the camera issues with the cops and how they can read where license plates and check if the car unregistered, uninsured or stolen. Which I think it would be a good thing differently expressly in our stusiabie. As Marjorie cohn has indicated, “Orwell never could have imagined that the National Security Agency (NSA) would amass

the government to watch us. Our surveillance has brought us closer to the society of 1984 and we

Thesis statement: Government surveillance should be stopped because it is an invasion of privacy and gives the government control that is not enumerated in the constitution.

In 1949, George Orwell published "1984", a story about a dystopian world ruled by a tyrannical government that observes its citizens every move through the use of telescreens: television screens that record everything and spout totalitarian propaganda nonstop. Orwell's book was intended to serve as a warning for the human race of the dangers of allowing the government to grow too powerful, but as we look around today, the resemblance of our world to Orwell's broken society is eerie. Be it the NSA's recent infringements upon the average American citizen's privacy, or the censorship of the press, it is clear that our civil liberties are no longer as sacred as the Bill of Rights guarantees. Thus, we can see that the United States government has

Are we being watched? Is the book “1984” by George Orwell becoming a reality? Is our technology driving us closer to a dystopia like the one described in the novel 1984? We are going to discuss what the story is “1984”, what telescreens are and how they are in the book, real-world example of mass surveillance in Long Beach, NSA surveillance program PRISM. The main question is we are heading towards the world of big brother Or are we already there.

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.

“If a person in a phone conversation believes that everything they say is monitored by the government, then their participation in the marketplace of ideas could be chilled.” This principle is known as the chilling effect. Essentially what this means is that, should a person believe their phone conversations, internet activity, or digital communication are constantly being monitored, their willingness to openly express their thoughts and ideas could be “chilled”. The chilling effect ultimately hinders the advancement of society as a whole because  government surveillance prohibits people from openly expressing ideas that are considered politically unfavourable. People’s fear of persecution disables from them having open and honest discussion of ideas with “genuine social utility” and could actually benefit

Right now, in this very moment everyone is being watched. There is no escaping it; they’re everywhere. Who, people might ask, is behind the cameras? The government is who is watching. The government believes it’s necessary to watch over everyone’s activities at all times. No matter what it is that people are engaged in, it’s never private. Government surveillance has come to a point where privacy no longer exists. Even if people are doing nothing wrong, they’re still under close watch. People’s individual liberties are being violated, and they do not trust the government, instead they live in fear of it.