...The novel I just finished reading was titled 1984 by George Orwell. This story covers a modern controversy that the government is constantly watching us, from hidden cameras, to tapping in our phone lines, to spies. Though this is a fictional novel, it is very similar to today’s society. In the novel, we are introduced to Winston Smith, one who is against the Big Brother Party who is keeping Oceania under surveillance perpetually. Winston takes us through his expedition on a life of secrecy. The author of the book is George Orwell. The whole novel is written in third person context and in one continuous present storyline. His writing style is superb as he puts the reader in the shoes of Winston. Every emotion Smith feels, the reader feels as well. Winston Smith is a low-ranking member of the ruling party in London, in the nation of Oceania. The nation of Oceania is constantly being under watch along with many others by the Big Brother Party. The party keeps the society under watch so that no citizen could be rebellious. The Big Brother Party prohibits free thoughts, sex, expression of individuality and even thoughts of rebellion is a crime. Winston who dislikes the party’s rigid control purchases a diary to write all his rebellious thoughts. Throughout the novel, he meets Julia, his co-worker who he fell in love with. They go behind the party’s back and have a secret relationship. Te party soon discovers their rebellious acts and decides to punish then severely by introducing...
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...Are Law Enforcement Cameras an Invasion of Privacy? Are law enforcement and government cameras become a real threat to our privacy? In today's society, we've become accustomed to being tracked; complacent really. Many can't decide if this is a legitimate way to keep us secure, or just another move by the government to gain control. We are monitored with traffic cameras, police dashboard and body cameras, location services on our cell phones and store security cameras. How much is too much? Are we even aware of all the things that we encounter every day that are able to track our every move? Good questions. What will be your paper’s answer? The line is a thin one, that line between privacy and feeling as though we're in a fish bowl with people watching our every move. I think that TV shows such as "Person of Interest" that highlight a government system called "The Machine" which uses facial recognition and social security database information to warn the good guys of who is in danger based on a series of data information it compiled to determine their risk rating based on movements of both the target and the aggressor. While I believe this show only proves to ramp up the paranoid to believe that we live in a society where you're tracked and monitored every step of your day. Some people live with the belief that the police and government agencies truly are watching our every move, even in our own homes. And are they? What does the research say? While a little far fetched...
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...Little Brother Is Watching Eric Bullock Eastern University March 30, 2012 Author Note: This paper was prepared for ENG 163 Rhetorical Patterns in Writing taught by Joan Hayes In this day and age of technology people’s lives are always being scrutinized. For instance, “Eric Gall a freelance writer for the National Post and Queen’s Journal reports in his article Little Brother Is Watching that we have to always be discrete in our action if there is to be any level of privacy in a person’s life.” The primary focus of his exposé is on how in today’s world somebody is always scrutinizing and reporting our every move. This is sometimes done by video recording or the “taking of pictures by cell phone” and then being posted on the internet or “YouTube.” The story is not only a revelation but also mind opening. The website YouTube is the main focus of this writing although there are many other venues (i.e. Facebook or Twitter) on the internet that can exploit privacy. To some this may seem innocent, but others can find it to be disturbing and intrusive. Especially if an individual is caught doing something out of character. Some of reasons that this wonderful innovation can produce harm are, a person can be stalked, pictures can be altered and used to obtain a false identity, or you can simply be embarrassed. In this particular writing it is brought to the reader’s attention that the...
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...The novel 1984 by George Orwell brings up many ideas that seem absolutely crazy on the surface, but resemble, when looked into deeper, more similarly today’s conditions than originally thought. One of these topics is surveillance, specifically government and law enforcement surveillance. In the world today, surveillance solves crimes and keeps an eye on things in important buildings and even on some streets, making it a good thing, but too much surveillance, especially when no laws restrict it in any way, harms society in an irreversible way. The telescreens in 1984 are mega versions of security cameras, the undercover Thought Police compare to undercover police officers in their patience and tactics, and the hidden cameras and microphones equate to things such as wiretapping and using a cell phone as a listening device. These techniques, used on wide scales in both societies, differ greatly in how they are executed. In 1984, the Party uses them on everyone equally, while in today’s society, using them requires government and law enforcement officials to utilize them strictly for watching and studying possible threats. Telescreens, A huge part of the society in 1984, find themselves literally everywhere among the Party members, and anyone can be watched at any time with them. The proles have the option to install one in their house or not because, according to the Party views them as equivalent to animals. One of the Party’s slogans even states, “Proles and animals are free...
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...Levi Wortley Logan Denney Discussion Group 9-22-12 Our Society VS. The Hunger Games Now in the film The Hunger Games there are a lot of themes that mirrored in our society today. First and foremost there is the politics of Panem. The government, or “The Capitol,” is corrupted. Their control over the country “Panem” is very iron like in the fact that they control everything from resources to where you can go and what you can do. After awhile of this the districts get fed up and rebel. The capitol succeeds in quelling this rebellion and then to prevent any more rebellions actions or from being embarrassed, they, the Capitol, ensure their power/superiority over their people through a “holiday” they created called the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a fight to the death between two tributes from the twelve districts displayed on a television program which is mandatory and to be enjoyed. One of the themes that's present in our society and the movie is the obsession with celebrities and fame. I found myself finding a lot of similarities between the Hunger Games contestants and those on shows like American Idol and The Voice. Both have stylists that dress them up to make them look more dazzling and attractive, and both have mentors that help guide them through the process. There is a spectacle of fashion, makeup and style that has gone wild within the “elite class”. The style and fashion of the “elite class”(people who live in the high-tech cities of Panem) seems to...
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...The novel “1984” describes the results of drastic totalitarianism which tramples the dignity of humans who are under the control of an omnipresent, Big Brother. Many people do not believe that the novel “1984” is significant to our society. Likewise they think that the novel itself posses very little relevance to the modern world. Though many people might think 1984 is solely relevant to the post after World War II politics, but the fact is that today any of us could become Winston or Julia. It is clear that the circumstances of novel “1984” are revealing to our society with the three slogans; War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength, invasion of privacy and physical Control. This essay will go on to discuss these points in greater detail. “War is Peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is Strength” which is the three slogans of the English Socialist Party of Oceania emerges the...
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...Assignment 1: Ethical Issues in Information Systems Strayer University Professor April Hudson CIS109-Intro Mgt Info Systems Privacy is one of the major ethical issues in today’s digital society. The collection of data by various electronic means, has pretty much ensured the age of total privacy is coming to an end. The ethical use of private information walks a thin line with the way information is given and received. Private information can be handle very delicately by a doctor’s office, but with the wrong click of the mouse. You can basically hand over your life to someone and have your life stolen. I personally chose social media as a way to stay in contact with most of my family and friends. Not until 2007 did I realize how social media worked and how privacy could become an issue. Posting the wrong picture or allowing someone to post a not so pleasing one of you could cause and ethical issue in the work place years later. Trying to get a job these days required you handing over your Facebook password and allowing people to form an opinion of you from what you do or say away from the workplace. The ethical issue behind this demand of you private life only start here. That’s why I learned to interact with social media very carefully. Watching what I post, and being aware of what other people post of myself. Protecting you privacy can be pretty easy. Being aware of what you say around a group of people is very important. For example, you’re at work and you make...
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...have sent civilians to prison camps for communicating with the world, which is illegal to do. The ‘Bureau 27’ monitors every phone call and internet activity in North Korea’s State Security Department. Apparently, the unit specialises in converting intelligence and uses sophisticated equipment to detect mobile phone frequencies. Citizens find it impossible to make international calls. The vast majority of North Koreans have no access to the internet and live like if they are in prison. The domestic intranet, the Kwangmyong, are the only ones allowed access to government approved websites and email systems. Someone proficient at computers, especially a hobbyist, can take advantage of his/hers knowledge and stalk,spy and stalk on someone. They can hack into a person’s mobile device and read their private messages or try to empty someone’s bank savings in an instant. Sounds creepy, but that’s how we live in today’s society. The bright news is there are people who set up firewalls and prevent from this from...
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...Alice Sewah Michael Davros English 101 28 February 2012 Society and Surveillance In today’s society we are under surveillance everywhere we step our feet to. The only place we get privacy is when we are at home, everywhere else there are cameras hidden watching you, without even noticing. At shopping malls, there are hidden cameras. The reason why they exist is simple: to prevent shopliftings, or in some cases, to catch shoplifters. Most customers realize that they are being watched and try to act properly, though there are some who fail to recognize or decide to ignore this fact and take the wrong path. It is not just shopping malls that have surveillance watching over people. Even when you’re driving on the street there is a hidden camera somewhere watching you to make sure you run a red light. Foucault starts Panopticism with a talk on the plague. After the explanatory introduction, Foucault presents an analysis of the prison system created by a famous economist Betham, Panopticon Readers could perceive a different conclusion as to what Panopticism is. According to my point of view Panopticism is the idea that schools are similar to prisons, and it is emphasized as well as stated throughout in the reading multiple times. The text gives a variety of examples to help the readers understand as well as analyze what the author is trying to portray. I concur with most of the ideas displayed in the text. Schools are similar to prisons due to the fact that individuals...
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...Is our society changing into one of those societies led by a totalitarian government found in the futuristic books and movies? Many seem to agree since technology has advanced to point where it can do as much or even more as the aged books have foretold. In the novel, 1984, the author, George Orwell, wrote about a distant future where everything was controlled by one person known as Big Brother. The main protagonist in Orwell's story, Winston Smith, believes that things are not as they should be and explains how they were always being watched by the Inner Party which consisted of less than 2% of the entire population. Proles, as they were named, consisted about 80% of all the population, including the Party. The Outer Party, where Winston is,...
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...issue that seems to raise some concerns in our society would be the National Security Agency (NSA) not only spying on people in our country but also other countries by wiretapping and keeping surveillance on certain people. There have been a number of different laws that have been instated that help to protect our privacy such as the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Acts of 1968 which acknowledged that there were extensive amounts of wiretapping that seemed to be going on without any sort of legal sanctions and without the consent of anyone involved. With this law it helped to protect innocent people and stated that wiretapping should only be allowed only when authorized by the court and should therefore remain under the supervision of the court throughout its duration. However, in 1968 our technology was not as advanced as it is now so this law went through many significant changes over the next forty plus years. By 1986 a new amendment had been written in response to the ever-changing technological advances. The 1968 law only protected individuals who communicated through telephone calls. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 took it a step further to focus primarily on any email that would be transmitted as well as stored in any type of storage device. The biggest improvement came when the Patriot Act of 2001 was instated in response to the September 11th attacks. This new law expanded the reach of the government into electronic communications. Search warrant...
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...parts of the world in today’s society. Social media have become such a part of many people daily activities that most couldn’t image living without it. It has brought many benefits to us, but also some pitfalls. Facebook monitors how third parties use your personal data, however, they also state they cannot guarantee “that third parties will follow Facebook’s privacy policy, if you don’t want your privacy violated, then you probably want to reconsider joining Facebook or other social networks. The definition of “privacy” is subjective, however, things like personal information such as name, living and working locations, job, career, education, income, relationship status, contact information, and bank information should be safeguarded at all costs to prevent things like stalking, identity theft, fraud, and other attempts to undermine a person’s life. It’s not all bad, Facebook has reunited family’s, long lost friends, and is helping police officers catch the bad guys, however, like anything, too much can be bad for you. More recently social media has been known as the tool that facilitated many uprising in Middle Eastern countries. It helped kick start a revolution known as the Arab Spring. Facebook was used to schedule activities such as gatherings to protest, Twitter was used to coordinate an array of events at a moment’s notice, and Youtube was used to voice this struggle to the world. Social Media has played a major part in overthrowing governments in countries like...
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...Criminal Justice Overview Paper Alyson L. Hagar 12/03/2014 CJA/394 Contemporary Issues and Futures in Criminal Justice In the early days of police work, officers were only able to work on hunches, instincts, overly-obvious evidence and confessions. With assistance of technology police work as completely changed. Overtime technology has become a growing constant in society and individual’s day to day living. From DVD players, to smart phones, iPods, and cameras, accessibility of these items is at ease. Almost every person who owns a phone has a phone with a camera built in. What is now considered a convenient feature of our cell phones has now become an aide in crime fighting and police mistreatment. Dash cameras, body cameras, cell phones, street and traffic cameras have all entered society with a fury. This increased use of technologies has greatly affected the criminal justice in both positive and negative ways. In previous years, police officers had to mainly rely on two way radios for any police call or accident. There was not the cruiser laptop or cell phones to gain instant access to mug shots or pictures of potential suspects or victims as well as direction or maps of areas of the town. Officers in the past had to be more inclined to learn and memorize the area they are patrolling as well as multiple routes in and out of that area. They would also have to rely on the dispatchers descriptions of the potential suspect. Sometimes this would cause...
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...Abstract The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution protects one’s rights against unreasonable searches and seizures. It also states that no warrants shall be issued without probable cause. Probable cause can be defined as a person of reasonable caution who believes that a crime has been committed and the person accused has committed that crime. Modern law has afforded police officers an incentive to respect this amendment, known as the “stop and frisk” act. The Stop and Frisk law allows police officers to stop someone and do a quick search of their outer clothing for weapons: if the officer has a reasonable suspicion that a crime has or is about to take place and the person stopped is armed or dangerous. The reasonable suspicion must be based with specific expressed facts and not on just an officer’s intuition or guess. The Stop and Frisk law balances crime control, protects an individual’s right, and prevents from unreasonable searches. This law is further implemented and proven in the Supreme Court case Terry v. Ohio where it was ruled that the search performed was in fact reasonable under the constitution and the fourth amendment. Introduction The Fourth Amendment states, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place...
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...American’s are protective when it comes to maintaining their privacy; particularly, when Big Brother may be watching; therefore, society grapples with the relationship between civil liberties and homeland security. Belief structures underlying the relationship of liberty and security vary among different political orientations in the United States. The disclosure that the Obama administration surreptitiously accessed phone records and infiltrated the internet activity of millions of Americans, has elevated brand-new questions about the public’s enthusiasm to sacrifice civil liberties in the interests of homeland security. This thread will provide a brief synopsis on how American’s can understand the balancing of a civil liberties perspective...
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