The Surveillance of Government in the Novel 1984

The Surveillance of Government

Personal privacy and space is never granted throughout the book "1984" by George Orwell. Every person is always subjected to obersvation through the telescreen and even by their own family members and their friends. Similarly, real - life governments are also on lookout, invading other people's privacy without permission. Both the governments in the book "1984" and our country use technology, such as the telescreen for the government in the novel and cameras for real - life government, and special agents to spy on people's privacy. However, they invade other people's privacy in a different manner and purpose.

Everyone has at least something that they want to keep it a secret from others, but the government can invade through people's privacy without them knowing. The government can easily access through anyone's private email or instant message without asking the owner. A Google senior policy analyst writes a blog on government monitoring stressing that "Government surveillance is on the rise." This is true with the modern technology advancing quickly; it makes it easy for the government to spy on people. The advanced technology allows Google to be able to store huge amounts of data and personal information about the users. According to CNN news, "Google has wealth of information in e-mail and the user's IP addresses. The government can just request information from Google and they would give the requested information to the government.

In the novel, "1984," every corner of a street is monitored by telescreens which are used to see and check on people's daily routine. Likewise, our government today placed thousands of cameras all over the world for surveillance. Both of the government has public and secret cameras or telescreen placed everywhere to spy on the citizens. Winston, the main character of the novel said "there was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment."Both of the governments also use cameras to find bad motives of citizen and place them under arrest before any harm is done to other innocent citizens.

Cameras are just one of the types of surveillance the government use to spy on a person. They also use wiretapping to listen to people's conversation on a phone or any type of communication device. Based on the article, "Appeals Court Dismisses Lawsuit Over Warrantless Wiretap Program," the government can secretly monitor, or wire type their target without a warrant. It is almost scary to know the fact that you are being watched at any moment, at any place. Unlike our government, the government in the novel 1984 had the right to put the citizens on surveillance without permission. The world in the novel 1984 is ruled by the government and the citizen, or the proles had no such power to deny the government.