A prevalent theme throughout 1984 is the totalitarian future where society lives under extreme government surveillance. At the time of the release of the novel, this idea probably seemed outlandish. But over time, due to the digital age, some of these ideas don't seem too far from reality.
Something I remember learning about before high school was PRISM, a government surveillance program controlled by the National Security Agency. It became known that they collected information and communications from various internet companies and its general existence was leaked to the public by Edward Snowden. He claimed PRISM was dangerous and was associated with criminal activities. This scandal had drastic effects on companies and websites that were part of the rise of the internet age. Google, for instance, constantly denied being used by the government to steal information from users.
When does security become too much? Do you think we have to worry about reports such as this?
Hmmm, great observation. Whether we like it or not, the Internet controls almost every aspect of our lives, from work to shopping to leisure time. Sure, internet service providers and browsers give us a false semblance of "privacy" with add-ons like Incognito mode or VPNs, but all of our data is being collected. I like how you mentioned that Google denied being employed by the GOVERNMENT to "steal" our information, but technically they're not stealing anything given that they detail what information they're tracking in the 100 page license agreements that nobody reads. There's such a fine line between BEING under extreme government surveillance and KNOWING you're under extreme government surveillance and I'm glad you touched on it.
ReplyDeleteInteresting questions. The irony has been pointed out endlessly that people get very angry on social media when they think their "privacy" is being violated -- even though they signed up for that medium precisely so that they could, in fact, give away their private information. I don't know the answer to this. I just know I'm going to get a lot of ads for spyware removal after this.
ReplyDeleteIt's also rather ironic that companies spy on someone's online activity to give them ads for programs that prevent other people from spying on that person.
DeleteIn our day of age, privacy is not a thing anymore due to all of our electronics. Our information is constantly being sold to big companies. But as Alex said, once someone brings up that we are being "spied on" and we become more aware of it, it seems like a bigger violation.
ReplyDeleteExactly, but why do people always make a big deal out of it? They should know by now that it is happening so why do people only freak out once a big story comes out? Are we fine with it as long as we don't have to think about it?
DeleteI think whats even scarier is when the government can surpass companies own lock systems to "retrieve" the info they need. Something i remember was when apple refused to give the FBI the code to unlocking passcodes on phones for a certain terrorist or something, and then the FBI did it without them, and apple was like tell us how you did that. There is nothing the government cant touch essentially.
ReplyDelete(idk how to switch out of my brother's account rip) I think the question of who gets to know what information will be a constant and important problem for every nation to deal with, more so as time goes on. The reason why a lot of secrets and classified information is available only to government officials is (I presume) because the government provides structure for information holding, consists in this country at least of many, many people who each hold a small amount of power, and is supposed to protect the interests of the people. I would be concerned about the government stealing our information, but I would be more concerned about private companies and foreign governments having the opportunity to steal our information. With those, we can't complain that they're supposed to protect our interest - they have far less concern for what we want.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that what we hold as "privacy" nowadays is just a veil over reality. To be frank, if someone can find someone else on social media just by spotting them once in real life, I'm pretty sure the government, NSA, etc, has access to a lot more than we think.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I personally try to "ignore" the idea that my electronics could be stealing my information or spying on me, instead laughing it off with memes such as "my fbi agent is spying on me." It's scary for me to think about, so I try not to, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
ReplyDeleteThe internet kind of erased much of the idea of privacy. I think that these surveillance programs could definitely be dangerous and they should be watched carefully but then again our data is already being used by companies and there's not really much we can do about it.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the idea of the government watching your every move online is pretty uncomfortable to think about, but it also seems pretty harmless to be honest. I'm not the most educated on this type of thing, but complete digital transparency has never seemed that bad unless it was with your parents. I understand the fear of your information being sent to foreign parties, but if all they're doing with it is giving you ads I don't really mind.
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