TheinfluenceofGeorgeOrwells“1984”onprivacyprotectionlegislation.docVIP

The Influence of George Orwells 1984 on Privacy Protection Legislation 论乔治?奥威尔的H.-P. Gassmann 作者：H.P.盖斯曼 When George Orwell had finished writing a political fiction book in 1948, he looked for a title. As the subject of his book was a pessimistic political vision, needing a future dimension, he decided that it might be a good idea to simply invert the last two digits of the year during which the book was written - and call it 1984. In so doing, he introduced a deterministic prophecy, as a year in the future was fixed and conditions of living of that year described. Thirty-six years have elapsed since 1984 was written. They were the post-World War II years, which saw an unprecedented economic growth in most countries, and the birth of many new states, as former colonies gained their independence. They constituted a period of relative stability, as no major wars - at least of a world scale - occurred. This was also a period of very rapid technological development, which brought about, among other technologies, those information technologies which could be used for surveillance. 　 Surveillance versus Observation It is interesting to note that George Orwell apparently did not conceive of, or imagine, the computer; at least, in 1984 no computer is described. The famous sentence Big Brother is watching you rather refers to total surveillance of the individual by the State, using audio, television and press media. Those television cameras we now see rather frequently in our daily environment: overlooking streets and intersections (for traffic control), in front of embassies, other public buildings, and even at the doors of apartment buildings (for security). They have already been used for some time inside buildings, especially for surveillance purposes in banks (burglar and hold-up monitoring). So it has become true that the television camera has, to a certain extent, acquired a surveillance function, as foreseen by Orwell. But in general it has the functi