Even though the novel 1984 is a fiction written more than 70 years, it does have some parallels with what is happening in our society today as can be seen with what Edward Snowden has to say about privacy. Edward Snowden points out some eerily similar powers that the US government has: “…Section 215 of the Patriot Act. That allows sort of a warrantless wiretapping, mass surveillance of the entire country's phone records, things like that -- who you're talking to, when you're talking to them, where you traveled.” Edward Snowden explains that the Patriot Act allows the US government to tap into everyone’s phones to track their activities. This is similar to Nineteen Eighty-Four where the Party of Oceania monitors the citizens living in Oceania through telescreens in their homes. But of course, telescreens are a direct and open intrusion into people’s lives, whereas mass surveillance is done secretly without many citizens not being aware that they are being watched. Furthermore, Snowden continues to explain what the US government doesn’t tell us is that “those are secret judges in a secret court based on secret interpretations of law”. This further tells us that the government is secretly tracking you and that no one is aware of it. Snowden also says that “all companies need to move to an encrypted browsing habit by default for all users who haven't taken any action or picked any special methods on their own. That'll increase the privacy and the rights that people enjoy worldwide.” What Snowden says here is that the customers using social media, using the browser, etc. should not be continuously monitored and tracked but rather companies can choose encrypted systems to protect their privacy. The second point is about the high level of intrusion into Americans' privacy concerns Boundless Informant, which is that more communications are being intercepted in America about Americans than there are in Russia about Russians. In 1984, the infamous telescreen openly tracked what people were doing and saying: “The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard” (Orwell 2). Another program pointed out by Snowden is the Bullrun program: “… by the Bullrun program, we will live a less safe world overall. We won't be able to access our banks and we won't be able to access commerce without worrying about people monitoring those communications or subverting them for their own ends.” This is somewhat comparable to the Thought Police in 1984 and their ability to arrest people for thoughtcrimes. “The Thought Police would get him just the same. He had committed — would still have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper — the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it” (Orwell 10). The government or, in 1984, the Thought Police, who invade citizens’ privacy, can get those who do not listen to the government or the Thought Police arrested, whereas in the Bullrun program private financial information may be taken by the government. In conclusion, both 1984 and Snowden’s TED Talk focuses on privacy issues. In both, tracking the citizens in America and in Oceania doesn’t give the best result. It just destroys privacy and has people live in fear because they will no longer have the privacy to do anything. There may also be things that people do not want anyone to know about but because of the government in the United States and the Thought Police, these formerly private things would be known to the government or the Thought Police. There would be nothing more to hide.
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As modern technology advances, hackers hacking into your security cameras or Alexa or any voice assistants picking up everything a person says becomes more dangerous since a person can leave themselves vulnerable to the outside world. Many people are not protecting themselves from these dangers. Contrast this with 1984, citizens are constantly being monitored and watched by the Party with a telescreen in their homes and apartments. Also, there are telescreens in public places so no one in Oceania gets a moment of privacy. Citizens have to be careful with what you’re doing, writing, or saying because the telescreen picks up everything. Whereas in today’s society, it is not the government but instead it is criminals or people with an evil intent who hack into your so-called security cameras. What is the point of security cameras if they fail to provide security for a family because they are vulnerable to being hacked? Mowles, an Oshawa resident who sells cameras, muses, “What if they hack our smart door locks?” Mowles muses. “We all talk to our cars. What if they hack your car?” Obviously, he thinks that there is an expanded opportunity for criminal activity - for our cars and houses to be broken into. So, in today’s society a different type of criminal activity is growing. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, in Oceania, they do not actually have security cameras but rather they have telescreens and posters of Big Brother everywhere that act like a security camera or Alexa. Just like Alexa, telescreens pick up everything you say and do: “Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard” (Orwell 4). Hackers and people who are from the Party disguise themselves as if they are not from the Party to trick citizens who have doublethink to believe they are there to help them. An example of this is when Winston and Julia went into the junk shop owned by Mr. Charrington to have their affair in one of the empty rooms. Unbeknownst to both of them, Mr. Charrington is actually a Party member who was acting as someone who is not a Party member so that they would trust him and believe they are out of danger. So they did have the privacy that they so desired, and Mr. Charrington turned them in. In today’s society privacy is also a major issue. Sameer Patil an assistant professor at Indiana University states, “When I go to a friend’s house and he has an Echo, I push the mute button. Is this the end of privacy? That is a question that we will have to answer looking back at history. It could go either way.” Therefore, Patil thinks that this technology, such as Echo and Alexa, can also spell the end of privacy - only time will tell. To conclude, in 1984, citizens are legally monitored for almost everything they say and do. If someone breaks the law, then they are treated harshly by being imprisoned, tortured, or vaporized. However, in today’s society from this article, I have noted that privacy is taken away by Big Brother, but in today’s society, privacy is quietly taken away by large companies with their Alexas and Echos being installed in millions of homes or it can be stolen by criminals who hack into devices. Both the video shown in class and the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell show history being erased and changed. The government monitors the citizens in the country they live in, and if necessary erases a real person from their history. In the case of Tiananmen Square, the massacre did happen but the government just erased it from history textbooks as if the massacre did not happen. Moreover, key figures like Wu’er KaiXi was one of the student leaders of the protest. He spent time in “exile” in Taiwan and was erased from Chinese history as well. On the other hand, in Nineteen Eighty-Four, the three former Party leaders; Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford once lived in Oceania but after they were “executed after spectacular public trials at which they made confession of their crimes” (Orwell 78), they were erased from Oceania’s history. So, the same purpose serves to control future generations’ information and ideas. In the video, the image shows a young man standing in front of the tanks to prevent them from advancing. Louisa Lim, who was explaining to the audience about the event, had gone around and asked 100 students to see who knew about the image and only 15 out of 100 knew about the image and the rest had never seen the image. The Chinese government successfully hid this iconic picture from much of the population. In the video, after the massacre happened, no one dared speak openly about the incident. This limits the citizens’ freedom to think and if they make a small mistake, they will have consequences for their mistakes. Who would dare speak about the massacre if the government did not even bring this event up for 30 years? No one. What proof do they have if they do speak of it? None. Not just because the government is pretending that the event did not happen, but because they are afraid to speak about the massacre since they are being monitored no matter where they are. That is why they do not speak about it and keep their own thoughts to themselves. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, we see the same thing about Oceania where the citizens in Oceania are being monitored in their own homes, at bars, out in the streets, everywhere. Put a foot out of line and you get taken away by the Thought Police to be vapourized and cease to exist. “You don’t make a difference by being like everyone else” (Motivational Quotes).
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December 2022
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