Is there Privacy?

In 1984 George Orwell describes how no matter where you go in Oceania there is

a telescreen right there watching you. Everything you do say or sometimes even think,

Big Brother will know. 1984 was written in 1949 and Orwell hinted at technology which

never even existed. Perhaps he saw it coming because of how popular the television was

becoming. There are many ideas in this novel that Orwell predicts. Some came true in

1984, some did not, but today in United States there is an issue of privacy similar to the

one that is described in 1984. Of course technology didn't develop exactly the way

Orwell predicted it would, but he wasn't too far off.

In Oceania, Big Brother was in control. No …show more content…

It is a bit easier to protect your privacy over the phone.

As Gleick mentions in his essay, "Telephone regulatory commissions have listed

arguments that people have a right to remain anonymous, hiding their own numbers when

placing telephone calls" (362). It is true that you can protect yourself by hiding your own

number and by having people show their numbers if they want to call you. But it once

again comes back to the fact that there's always a way around that to infringe on your

privacy. There are decrypting devices that can unmask your number. Telemarketers are

always calling to offer you something, and it always surprises me because they always

offer me something that I either already have or might need. How much of our personal

information is out there, how much do people have on us piled somewhere ready to be

looked through? If I want to talk to a company to which I am subscribed, I must first tell

them my name, where I live, my phone number and only then will they believe who I am.

And we do give out this information without a problem. We have to wonder at whose

fingertips is this information and what really stops them from selling it to someone else.

This doesn't make me feel safe