This year marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of that George Orwell’s seminal work, Nineteen eighty-four. His gloomy portrayal of a world gone mad, where children spy on their parents, and people are watched in their homes thought their televisions, which they are forbidden to turn off, has hugely influenced our language and society. It has given us words like ‘Newspeak’, and concepts like Big Brother and the Thought Police. And has perhaps strongly influenced our stance on the rights of the individual to privacy, as against the need for national security.
But are we on the path to creating a society as described in Nineteen eighty-four? No, I don’t think so. Because Big Brother (and Sister) is far too disorganised. Now, I’m not in favour of unjustified monitoring of individuals, and infringement of personal privacy. However, security is also important, and I’m prepared to give up some of my privacy in return for the state providing greater security. I have nothing to hide.
And in my experience, the people in power are too busy trying to organise their way out of paper bags – they don’t have time to worry about what I’m up to. And anyway, millions of us are happy to tell the world what we’re up to, on sites like Facebook and Twitter. There are some tangible benefits to surveillance.
Companies and organisations with vehicle fleets are benefitting from GPS vehicle tracking. There are many benefits for freight and transport organisations to have GPS tracking installed in their vehicles, including definitive times for delivery in the case of customer disputes, helping drivers stay within speed limits, and helping support lost vehicles. Also, police and similar organisations benefit.
Probably the most well-known method of surveillance is closed-circuit television, or CCTV. This is now so common that it is pretty much accepted. The value of CCTV systems has been often shown, in alerting security companies or the police to criminal activity as it happens, or after the fact in providing images of perpetrators. Even private individuals, or public bodies such as hospitals and museums, benefit from CCTV in providing surveillance of otherwise difficult to monitor areas.
CCTV systems utilise sophisticated spy software, with can send alarms to an email address or mobile phone, allow viewing locally or remotely over the Internet, and also provide audio.