大象传媒

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." The words of George Orwell, writer, journalist, critic and for a few years, a 大象传媒 producer. On the 7th November at Broadcasting House in London, the 大象传媒 erected a statue to the author of 鈥楴ineteen Eighty-Four鈥�, with the words 鈥淟iberty鈥� engraved on it. Orwell wrote of webcams, mass surveillance and the death of privacy in his dystopian classic, many of his ideas resonate to this day. So why is his work still relevant and what can it teach us about our relationship with our privacy and technology?

The Future of Surveillance
Nearly seventy years ago, Orwell gave us his satire of a possible post-privacy surveillance future. Well now we are in that future 鈥� well some kind of version of it, what next? What of surveillance in the years and decades ahead? And how about the idea that if we have nothing to hide then we have nothing to fear. Some say that is lackadaisical at best, downright dangerous at worst.

LAPD
Right at the beginning of Nineteen Eighty-Four, our protagonist Winston is in his flat, pen poised, about to write in his diary. When, in the distance, he notices a helicopter hovering 鈥渓ike a bluebottle鈥�, it was a police patrol 鈥渟nooping into people鈥檚 windows鈥�. Was Orwell anticipating police surveillance drones? Well in Los Angeles, California the LAPD has just approved a one-year pilot programme to evaluate drones in law enforcement.

(Photo caption: Big brother electronic eye concept 漏 Getty Images)

Producer: Jack Meegan