George Could Not Have Imagined

I remember reading George Orwell’s book 1984 in about 1969. He wrote it in 1949. I found it fascinating. It took far more than 35 years for much of the book’s prognostications to come true. But here they come.

When the Clinton years ushered in “Hate Crimes”, I harkened back to the “Thought Police”. It is now considered, depending on what the killer was thinking, a worse crime for a white man to kill a black man than a black man to kill a black man. So the government can now decide which black man’s life is worth more. The worth of a person’s life now depends on their social-political membership. I bet George never saw that coming when he was penning his classic.

Just weeks ago, the City of New York instituted a program where all hidden and outdoor security cameras are now being linked into a sort of “Big Brother” system so that the government can perform continual surveillance on . . . .well, everyone. Yes, literally everyone who steps outside or walks through a building in the city is on camera. One can’t even pick their nose in Central Park anymore without the action being recorded in the main database at headquarters.

And now, the thing Mr. Orwell never saw coming is what has become known as social media; email, Facebook, Linked In, cell phones, Twitter and all the rest. What George Orwell saw as a real threat of our privacy by the government, has become the new threat to our privacy by our fellow man (or woman).

In the headlines today is a story about two teenage boys who, while at a party, found a girl passed out drunk, took off her clothes and took pictures of her and posted them on the internet. This is probably the ultimate invasion of privacy, short of rape. The new technological means at our disposal make privacy invasion amazingly easy. 

I have been learning a lot lately about the subject. Over this summer, I have had someone hacking into my computer and illegally obtaining my phone records in a malicious attempt to obtain information about me. This person even went so far as to delete items in my Facebook and email accounts. In my research, I have learned that this is a clear violation of the law. That makes me feel a little better to know that laws are in place to attempt to deter people from performing these pernicious acts. However, the means to accomplish their goals are so easy to obtain. Thirty years ago, this person would have had to break into my home and rifle through my private papers in my file drawer to dig up the same information that now just sits there in front of them on their computer. Since I know who this person is, I doubt that even they would have resorted to breaking and entering to violate my privacy. But it amounts to the same thing. 

Like so much in our new world, the ability of governments and citizens to illegally victimize others by invading their privacy through social madia technology is not going to go away. In fact, it will probably get worse before it gets better. So, it is up to us to work hard to make known to those that might be predisposed to do this sort of thing that using technology to violate a person’s privacy is a criminal act and, just as if they broke into your house, they can be prosecuted for breaking and entering your private domicile.

In the book, hope for a better future was aroused by a love affair between two people that were doing their best to buck the system. But, in the end, “Big Brother” won out and one of them betrayed the other by joining the "Party". My experience has made me ponder the possibility that we are heading in that direction. Pessimism is not one of my favorite emotions. So I am going to continue to search for hopeful signs that we are heading into a world of cautious optimism that new laws and avenues of information are enacted where the less trustworthy among us will think twice before violating the rights of others. As a matter of fact, I recently found out that most police departments and sheriffs departments have an IT investigation division and are usually very willing to help.

However, for now, a word of caution. Your password is just like your house key. If you get on someone else's computer and enter your password to check your email or Facebook or whatever, you have just left your house key with that person who so graciously let you borrow their computer. Better know and trust them really well. I thought I did. Turns out I was wrong.