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Examples Of Surveillance In 1984 By George Orwell

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People are watched 24/7 every day. From security cameras to phones, someone is always watching. In the book 1984, by George Orwell, surveillance is one of the main topics. The main character, Winston Smith, describes an electronic device called a telescreen that can “receive[d] and transmitt[ed] simultaneously. Any sound… above the level of a low whisper would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision… he could be seen as well as heard” (pg4). While the telescreen is just one of many examples of surveillance used in 1984, it highlights the topic of constant surveillance. Luckily, there are not any telescreens in real life, but mobile phones with social media apps come very close. The social media app TikTok is used to share videos with its users, yet there are many concerns over how much personal information is being stored and shared on …show more content…

The news article, “Manitoba to ban TikTok app on government-issued devices over security concerns” by Global News talks about how the provinces are worried about information being stolen and making the users more “susceptible to surveillance”. TikTok has many security policies that allow the app to access contacts, email and phone numbers, approximate locations, keystroke patterns, in-app private messages, and IP addresses. This makes the federal government worried about what else can be taken from the app. Because of this, it raises the question “how safe is personal information?” on TikTok and “are people being watched?”. This all connects back to 1984 as characters there are constantly worried about being watched, and due to constant TikTok usage, both are being used enough to gather information 24/7. The parallels between both 1984 and real-life draw close as people and characters cannot control if they’re being

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