Boose 1

Am I allowed to Say that?

Everyone is guilty of something or has something to conceal. All one has to do is look
hard enough to find what it is.In Nothing to Hide,by Daniel Solove, he quotes author Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn. Just because you believe you have nothing to hide, doesnt necessarily mean that
you aren't really guilty of any wrong doings. How private is privacy in the United States of
America? This is a question that can take a lot of thinking. If you ask a citizen they might say
that they feel their privacy is very well taken care of, but many will also say they feel their
privacy has been taken away from them. It all depends on how informed and opinionated they
are. Privacy is one of the fundamental values on which America was founded. It can be taken
away in the comfort of your own home, workspace, online, and even walking down the street. In
the Novel V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, the government completely abuses
their right to the citizens privacy.
In George Orwells 1984, Orwell introduces the concept of Big Brother, which is the
idea of extreme government surveillance. If you even have a thought of anarchy or rebellion the
party will hurt you to the point of submission. This is an exaggeration of the US government,
which of course isnt this cruel in nature, but still reflects on the same ideas. Peoples
interactions, whether its online, on the phone, or at work, are constantly being monitored. Some
people have no idea that this is even going on. People may feel the need to change their
behaviors and act like a different person because they know they are being watched by the
government. Its a scary thought to feel like you have to pretend to be someone else in order to
feel safe in your own home. Some people may say they dont mind being watched because they
have nothing to hide, but we are all guilty of something,whether its big or small. People could

Boose 2
eventually feel like changing who they are if their privacy continues to be increasingly
diminishing. America should want its people to feel safe, but by intruding in their private lives
they are taking away something far more important: privacy.
Many don't know that their privacy can even be taken away while being at their
workplace. Employers are invading their employees privacy with cameras, email viewing, and
more. In the article Privacy in America, electronic monitoring by ACLU.org, it states this
kind of info gathering and sharing is almost always legal. Employers can film employees with
hidden cameras in both public and private areas. A few cases have been exposed where the
employer had hidden cameras in the workplace in areas like the restroom, changing room, and
personal office space. Since the employers in all of these cases said the cameras were placed for
theft reasoning no illegal action was taken. This is obviously invading privacy to an extreme. The
only reason that things like this are legal is because there are no laws to regulate electronic
surveillance in a workplace. The government isnt helping to protect the right of privacy in a
workplace and since they are doing nothing to help in the matter they clearly dont care about
basic privacy.
Mass surveillance in the government is evident in the novel, V for Vendetta by Alan
Moore and David Lloyd. The government in this book plays a role as a bully to society. They
have all the answers and are always right no matter what, and if you question that you will be
sorry. Throughout the novel you can see video cameras on every street corner. This is relative
to the US because in some areas you can find video cameras on street lights. Although, these
cameras are meant to be used as traffic cameras and for street traffic, how long will it be before
they start showing up on every street corner? Once you give someone an inch they take a mile
and this is exactly what the government can do with the Traffic cameras.

Boose 3
Social media plays a big role in how the government views its people. With all the
different types of platforms of social media, whether it is photo sites like Instagram or blogs like
Tumblr, they have access and can view all that you put online. In the article, 6 Government
Surveillance Programs Designed to Watch what you do Online by David Rosen it states: An
increasing number of federal agencies are employing sophisticated means to monitor Americans'
use of social networking sites. Federal entities from the National Security Agency (NSA) and the
Defense Department to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to even the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) are involved in developing programs to track the American public
online." Of course you should be smart with what you put online, but should you worry if you
put up a sensitive tweet? Freedom of speech could only go so far. In some cases people have
been arrested for tweets that were bomb threats, racial hatred, and more like these. This is the
good side of government surveillance because it is keeping the country safe. Although, how
much can the good outweigh the bad until its just bad? The government may say they use this
information to help weed out terrorist threat, but they should do so in way that doesn't impede on
the privacy of the American Citizens. People are constantly joking online and never stop to think
if what they are saying can be seen by the government. This is frightening because not
everything you do or say should be being read or looked at, except for whoever you befriend
online.
Privacy is slowly becoming less important in America. This is evident throughout
everyday life. In V for Vendetta the government was so cruel and took away everyones privacy to
the point that they didnt even realize who they were anymore.The government uses our private
information to help make the country better, but it doesn't always benefit everyone. As seen in
everyday life, employers are taken away our privacy and the government has nothing to say for

Boose 4
it. We cant let big government bully us in our own homes. If we don't become aware our
privacy will slowly become nothing. If we arent careful one day we will wake up and have no
privacy left for us at all. Privacy laws exist for a reason.We need to be aware of our rights and
know how much we want the government to know of our personal lives.

Bibliography
1) @ACLU. "Privacy in America: Electronic Monitoring." American Civil Liberties Union. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2016.
2)Moore, Alan, David Lloyd, Steve Whitaker, Siobhan Dodds, Jeannie O'Connor, Steve
Craddock, Elitta Fell, and Tony Weare. V for Vendetta. New York: Vertigo/DC Comics, 2005.
Print.
3)Solove, Daniel. "Nothing To Hide." Http://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1159&context=faculty_publications. N.p., n.d. Web.
4)By David Rosen / AlterNet. "6 Government Surveillance Programs Designed to Watch What
You Do Online." Alternet. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2016.