1984 essay

Today: Peer Reviews 

Next-to-Final due 11/21
Final due 11/22

Saying Hello to the Jetsons, Again

Eric Blair, more commonly known as George Orwell, was an English writer known

mostly for his books Animal Farm and 1984 . Through these books he warned of the abuse of

power and violent oppression of people through the use of torture and mass surveillance. Back

when Orwell wrote these books, the idea of a government exploiting their own people through

the use of technological surveillance was scifi and futuristic. However, some things have

changed in the surveillance world. Cell phones are tracking everything users do on their devices,

the government is shamelessly giving themselves more surveillance power, and the company

whose name has become a verb, Google, is collecting more information on citizens of the world

than ever before seen. It seems as time marches on and citizens are increasingly spied on,

Orwell’s prophetic warnings have become a modern day reality.

Relatively recent inventions such as the smartphone have given computer programmers

entirely new operating systems to design computer programs on. Many of which are useful, such

as maps, mobile banking, and taxi services. Others are fun and recreational. Snapchat, Instagram,

and Facebook being prime examples. However, all six of these applications have features that

require the location of the device to use the service. To make matters worse, most Americans use

these services multiple times per day and the parties involved in the apps, such as the app

developers and the cell phone carriers, store these locations indefinitely. In fact, companies such

as Verizon Wireless and AT&T are selling “information gleaned from its customers directly to

businesses” (David Goldmann). The information they are selling is not just the locations of

smartphones, but also “what websites you visit, what apps you download, [and] what videos you

like to watch” (Goldmann). Then, these companies can turn around and sell the information to

other companies; thus, creating a cycle that never ends. Currently, the information is said to be

used for specialized advertisements and coupons (Goldmann). However, as time goes on these

powers could be used, rather than to make more money off of civilians, to spy on and keep

civilians in order.

The government of the United States represents a beacon of hope for many people across

the world. Unfortunately, that beacon is contrasted by a history of oppression of unpopular

beliefs. Some of these include the McCarthy witchhunts which ended the careers of thousands

of suspected communists in the entertainment and labor union industries. Or the Sedition Act of

1918 that threatened 20 years of prison for anyone who used disloyal or anti American

Language during the span of the First World War. As one can see, the USA has not exactly been “the land of the free” that it proclaims to be. One difference between the United States of old and new is the 43% increase of population in urban locations since 1920 (US Census). Paired with the increase in use of technology, the population of the United States is exceptionally easier to spy on than any time previously. Furthermore, the United States government is giving itself more

spying power on a regular basis. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the United States

government swiftly passed the “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate

Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001”, conveniently abbreviated to

the USA PATRIOT Act. This allowed the government to monitor the phone records, computer

records, credit history, and banking history of anyone in the country “without a judge’s

approval” (ACLU). While the government has to notify the person who is being monitored, that

person is legally restricted from telling anyone that their information was meticulously combed

through by their government (ACLU). To damn the credibility of the United States government

even further, between 2003 and 2005 there were 143,074 Americans who were checked using

this system for terrorist related activities. Unfortunately for the United States, only 53 people

ended up being prosecuted during that time span, including exactly zero people being prosecuted

for terrorism (ACLU).

Even with the PATRIOT Act’s allowance for unprecedented surveillance, the National

Security Agency began collecting phone records, internet histories, and email records of every

person inside of the United States (EFF). All of this surveillance was done secretly and without

warrant. This activity is, although different in execution, remarkably similar to the telescreens

and thought police from Orwell’s 1984. Both governments are willing go to any extent to prevent

illegal activities from occurring. The only difference being in one of the countries this practice of

spying on citizens is in and of itself considered illegal. Another striking similarity between The

Party of Oceania and the United States government are their brutal treatment of dissenters and

whistleblowers. In 1984 , Winston Smith was captured and tortured for an extended period of

time because his personal and private opinions differed from that of The Party’s doctrine.

Similarly, in the United States, when whistleblower Edward Snowden released to the world the

knowledge that the United States was spying on its citizens while abroad, the United States

simply told Mr. Snowden if he returned to face trial he would not receive the death penalty

(Castillo). Even more, the American people for the most part bought into the hatred of Edward

Snowden. Surprisingly, the process of doublethink the American people must have went through

is egregious. They fully supported the government who had been spying on them against the very

man who exposed this atrocious act of espionage. The United States is looking more like

Oceania every day.

Despite the sins the United States Federal Government committed, the biggest culprit in

collecting mass data about the citizens of not only the American public, but the people of the

world is Google. The company whose name is synonymous with the act of searching something

is indeed monitoring literally everything happening on the internet. Google, besides being a

search engine, is an email service, has its own web browser, navigational system, social network,

video sharing website, online office productivity tools, and a plethora of other services.

However, all of these uses come with one simple disadvantage: Google knows everything. Every

search, every email, every place someone uses Google to get to is stored in Google’s databases

indefinitely. This would not be too large of a problem except Google has an account tethered to

every piece of information. This means every search, email sent, site visited, paper written in

Docs, and YouTube video seen is connected directly to someone’s personal account, and

therefore that person. Besides Google’s impressive amount of information on the people of the

world, they also have over $130 Billion in assets (Forbes). With this outrageous amount of

money sitting in the form of various properties, infrastructure, and other valuables known only to

Google, the company could pay off the United Kingdom’s debt almost twice over as of 2012

(Whittaker). Or, the more likely option, find a way to give themselves political power such as

through donations to Super PACs. They would then use their extensive knowledge of everyone’s

habits to exploit and oppress them. Whether that be through working with one or more of the

current governments of the world or hypothetically taking one over, if Google and a governing

body worked hand in hand the result would be disastrous for the people of the country.

Orwell spread warnings through his books about the dangers governments can present to

the people if the people become complacent. This has happened throughout history in Germany,

France, China, the Soviet Union, and countless other nations, the United States is not

impervious. To combat the oppression, people must band together and work as a collective unit

to assert and maintain their freedoms, instead of using make believe differences to divide

themselves. To quote the band AntiFlag, “First they came for the communists/And I did not

peak out/Then they came for the socialists/And I did not speak out/Next they came for the trade

unionists/And I did not speak out/And then they came for me.” Protecting the exploited will

prevent future exploitation. Once the people forget that then the whole of humanity is helpless.

Works Cited

Castillo, Mariano. "U.S. Will Not Seek Death Penalty for Snowden, Attorney General Says CNN.com." CNN . Cable News Network, 27 July 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.

Forbes . Forbes Magazine, May 2015. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.

Goldmann, David. "Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and TMobile on Privacy Policies." CNNMoney .

Cable News Network, 1 Nov. 2011. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

"NSA Spying." Electronic Frontier Foundation . EFF.com. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.

"Surveillance Under the Patriot Act." American Civil Liberties Union . American Civil Liberties

Union. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.

"United States Census Bureau." U.S. Census Bureau: FAQs . United States Census Bureau. Web.

20 Nov. 2015.

Whittacker, Zack. "What Apple Could Have Bought with Its $100 Billion Cash | ZDNet."

ZDNet . ZDNET.com, 19 Mar. 2012. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.