Net Widening: Big Brother Is Watching You

Privacy is a right that many Americans take for granted. Americans, for the most part, feel that they have privacy. But do they really? In order for one to achieve individuality and autonomy one must have privacy, which is the key factor. For the rapid advances in technology, however, one exchanges their privacy. Should one happen to use a computer to use the Internet, for example, their level of privacy is decreased substantially as you open the door to social control. As Orwell says in 1984, “Big Brother is watching you.” Ever since the creation of the Internet, more specifically the World Wide Web, the government has utilized Orwellian tactics of surveillance. “Many parts of the Internet are still kind of like the raw frontier and the Government wants to stake its claim” (TechnoCulture). For instance, in December of 1995, news was released concerning the Government’s intention to fund another ten thousand closed circuit surveillance systems. Even though civil libertarians were assured this action had no sinister motive, responses from most were leery to say the least (“Big Brother…”). This technology is very similar to that which Steven Mann, MIT computer specialist, uses. His “wearable wireless webcam” provides anyone logged onto his Internet home address live views of his daily routine.
“The Internet is sprouting eyes. And ears. And vending machines, hot tubs, coffeepots, robot gardeners, and model railroads. The armada of devices plugged into the Internet, in fact, is transforming the network into a bizarre place that falls somewhere between George Orwell’s 1984 and Candid Camera run amok” (TechnoCulture).
Intel currently uses the same technology for the cameras they sell for consumers to put on top of their monitors in order to be seen by others. This technology is inside your very computer monitor (“Eyes On The Net”). How do you know it’s not being utilized to oversee you? Is Big Brother watching you?
“A year ago, there were

Cited: Balkin, JM “Understanding Legal Understanding: The Legal Subject and the Problem of Legal Coherence” (1993) 103 Yale Law Journal 105-176 Schoeman. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984) 177. Orwell, George. 1984 New York, Signet. 1949 “TechnoCulture Archive” Home Page