The people of George Orwell's 1984 did not live their own lives and neither do we. The government is living more and more of our lives for us and if we are not careful we may one day be living in 1984.
Many issues arise when government control is mentioned, one being privacy. Privacy, many people believe that in today's society they have this, however the reality is that we are constantly monitored; we are monitored continuously in different locations throughout the day, from your local shop to an ATM machine and even in your own home. .
Though this constant monitoring is not quite as large scale as the novel 1984, our society is heading towards that direction. In the novel the actions of the party (the middle class) are monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week regardless of where they might be or what they may be doing. In the real world we are fast approaching a community with total surveillance. .
Australia is following the trend of countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom by establishing a large amount of security cameras all over the streets in order to keep a close eye on you. .
For example the Queen Street Mall in Brisbane now has an extensive amount of cameras throughout complex. The only place you are able to be without a camera watching you are the toilets. .
You may think that if you are not doing anything wrong that you have nothing to worry about, right? Wrong, it is possible that the security company that is watching you, browsing and buying items is secretly selling footage or information about what you are interested in to other companies. .
These companies would then be able to add you to one of their lists and send you information on their products because they have been able to find out your name and address through seeing you shopping at the mall. .
Once you are on one of these lists they are very hard to get off, these companies continue to send you brochure and brochure of information about their product.
