Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Is Big Brother Actually Watching Us?

If you were born anytime over the last several decades, chances are you, like me, have read the George Orwell's book, 1984. Most likely it was a required read at school and you may have even done a report about it. 

Like most you probably hated reading it because you know, it's really old...... and never thought it could happen here anyway. But what if it already has?

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of reading the big, the premise is Big Brother is the enigmatic dictator of Oceania, a totalitarian state taken to its utmost logical consequence, where the ruling Party wields complete power, for its own sake, over its citizens. Everyone is under complete surveillance by the authorities, and the people are constantly reminded of this by the phrase "Big Brother is watching you."

But when the book was written in 1949, this was basically avant garde science fiction. Sixty plus years later has fiction met reality?

Think that you are not being watched? That you have anonymity as you walk down the street or gather with your friends to watch a parade? Click on the link below to answer that question. When the screen comes up, double click on any area to see the area in greater detail.


Want to commit a crime while hiding in a crowd? Don't think for a minute that you'll have anonymity in a large crowd and the government won't be able to ID you! 

Mind you, this is just what can be done with a commercially available camera. Imagine what government and law enforcement have at their disposal!

The reason this scares me to the extent that it does is the fact that anything that can be used for the good of the common man, can also be used against him if safeguards are not in place to protect from abuse.

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