An excerpt from the Wiki for Orwells famous novel…
“In the society that Orwell describes, everyone is under complete surveillance by the authorities”
Last weeks lecture (10/02/2009) about surveillance in the networked world held some striking similarities with Orwells Big Brother theory.
We discussed the term Sousveillance, a term invented by Steve Mann to ‘describe the recording of an activity from an individuals perspective by wearing a video recording device, which is then streamed live on the net’.
We then talked about inverse surveillance, which means surveillance from the bottom up, and how this type of surveillance can be used to watch over authority figures.
Companies are able to track everything we look at or take part in over the Internet. They are then able to build up complex files about our consumer tastes and sell that information.
Social networking has now opened the door for employers to take note of how you behave in social situation. Considering most of the pictures on Facebook profiles are taken on nights out, I hardly see how this can be fair.
Social networking is now being used by police to hunt down criminals.
If I say one profound thing in my life, let it be this:-
“It’s scary times that we are living in”.
Note – It’s probably already been said!
SK
