Harrington

Alexis Harrington
Professor Altman
English 113B
October 19, 2015
Privacy
Everyday you are being watched under some sort of surveillance controlled by the
government whether its walking into a store, posting a pic on Instagram, posting a status on
Facebook, tweeting on Twitter, or even just talking to your grandparents on a cellular device that
live in a different country. The privacy in America will forever be changing as technology
changes. Cell phones have been a factor in the way people communicates; automobiles are
equipped with devices like TVs and mobile Internet. Privacy is increasing, as people
communicate less in person. Privacy is a term that is used for individuals to be free from damage
publicity, secret surveillance or unauthorized of ones personal information, as by a government,
corporation or another individual. Ones privacy played a big role in the graphic novel V for
Vendetta by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd. In the novel, the characters never had
privacy because of the government corruption. The unidentified man V is on a quest for
revenge and his desire to right the wrongs in his society. He wants to defend all the citizens in
England including himself; he knew his rights and what he deserved so he fought for it. In the
articles I found, they state prime examples on how privacy is no longer given to citizens
nowadays; although they think they have it they really dont. Ones privacy can been invaded
through camera surveillance, our phone calls being listened to, and their social network, always
being watched.

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Camera surveillance will interrupt a persons privacy because they are being watched and
recorded at every moment. Surveillance can be positive and negative; it can be positive because
if someone is stealing from you or a store you able to identify in some sort the person so you can
either have him or her punished or arrested. It can be a negative because some people like the
government in V for Vendetta, uses surveillance throughout their whole city to help monitor the
citizens in the city and control them if they do something bad. The citizens are taught that it is for
their protection, when in reality its just so the government can see what everyone is doing and to
control the citizens in the way they want to. V sees Helen on the camera having sexual
intercourse with another man and she shows her personal private body parts while saying Here
they are Conrad, heres what youre missing. Too bad you cant see them (Moore 228). This is
showing that Helen thinks that the cameras are off, so thats why she shows her boobs to them in
reality, they are still on and V can see everything she was doing. Helens privacy was invaded
and she knew that it was so she took advantage of it; although she thinks the camera in her room
is off that clearly proves how much a persons private time they would want to have can be
controlled by their government with their surveillance in this novel.
The government listening in on a citizens phone calls doesnt give them their rightfully
own privacy. It is actually illegal unless authorized by a court with evidence show to possible
detect a criminal or suspect. In the article Exclusion of Evidence: Telephone Taps by Michael
Bohlander, it gives the reader specific evidence on why they had to tap into the telephone calls to
get the drug dealers. In the first sentence it states, The Tribunal Supremo took issue with phonetapping authorization orders handed down by investigating judges in cases dealing with the
prosecution of serious drug offences(Bohlander). This quote states they had authority to listen
into the phone calls because it involved the investigation. In that case, this proves how the

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government can have total control of a simple phone call they are trying to make could invade a
persons rights to their privacy. Unlike the officers in the article, the government in the novel was
completely the opposite. They hacked into the phones without permission. They listened in all
conversation the character in the novel were having, so things they would like to say they cant
because they are scared of what the government will do or think about them.
When it comes to social media, everyone is able to see everything you do whether its on
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or even Snapchat. Lots of people in the world post things on
socials thinking that nobody will notice it or comment and with the new technology people are
able to screenshot what the person posted. The youth feel that its okay to post this and jobs or
their school cant see it. In the article Big Five Personality Traits Reflected in Job Applicants
Social Media Postings by J. Williams, the author talks about how employers would have each
other on social media and post things they know they should post with inappropriate language.
They would be fired because their job got a hold of the post and didnt approve because they are
suppose to representing the job and its unprofessional. In this quote The popular press has
reported individuals being fired for engaging in such behavior on Facebook(Williams). It states
that because individuals on Facebook posted inappropriate behavior and the company or job
didnt approve they had to be fired because their actions can easily affected the business. No
matter if a website seems to have that option to put a persons page on private so a certain person
or people arent able to view the page there are multiple ways people somehow figure out to get
access to that private page. Currently, people make fake profiles to entertain themselves to
investigate another person page or social network, so they can find something the person was
trying to probably hide. Social media in our world has been corrupted, people find ways to hack,
destroy people personal business. It has its negative impact on people but some actually use it to

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there advantage. Some enjoy letting people know their business others may disagree because this
generation of youth take personal to a whole another level. I have not and will not encounter with
the exposing ideal and letting people know my business. I didnt create my social network for
people to know my business; I mainly used it to stay in contact with my former friends, peers, or
even family. I have unfortunately witnessed the exposing and seen some statuses, tweets, or post
about a persons personal life being exposed to the world. Fortunately, that vicious person that
felt the need to expose was punished with their school. Come to find out that someone that show
the post screenshot and emailed it to a teacher and the teacher took care of the person. This
shows how much privacy isnt really so private especially when you allow certain people to view
your profile on the networks.
In conclusion, the novel V for Vendetta represents how ones rights of privacy can been
invaded through camera surveillance, our phone calls being listened to, and their social network
always being watched because they arent able to anything without the government seeing it.
They believe the surveillance is off like Helen did, but in reality she was being watched but not
just Conrad but by V. V felt it wasnt right so he did all he could to stop the government. He
would try to be a hero but he wasnt portrayed in that way because of the killings he was
accounted for. This novel was just like the novel 1984 by George Orwell where the government
was very controlling and nosy into the people live where they werent allowed to do anything.
The only thing 1984 didnt have was a hero like V, the main character Winston tried to be that
hero but he only lost in the long run. He dealt with same issue the citizens did in this novel,
privacy was one of them.

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