I am surprised that it has taken so long for all of us to connect Orwell’s 1984 with the current state of world affairs, particularly after passage of the USA Patriot Act. Your article does an excellent job of illustrating the passivity of the Brits but I must tell you that, aside from the Patriot Act, the American public is “out-to-lunch” on both government’s and businesses’ takeover of our names and personal data in the U.S. I hope you don’t mind my quoting and linking to your article: http://thedunningletter.blogspot.com/2005/10/did-george-orwells-1984-predict-todays.html. I am on a rampage to pass federal legislation in the U.S. that gives consumers control over their names and private information. At least the United Kingdom’s Data Ptotection Act of 1998 offers some safeguards, but falling short of my concept of individual control.

If you like my blog and want to link to me, I will certainly reciprocate.

Keep up the great work!

Jack

Jack E. Dunning
The Dunning Letter
Cave Creek, AZ, USA

Thanks for your article and your link to my story. You can find an updated version at http://gizmonaut.net/bits/suspect.html

As you do, I’ve also listed in the web version ways readers can act. There’s a convenient shortcut: http://gizmonaut.net/act

Regarding your initial quote, experiencing this constant surveillance in a closer, more direct way in the police station cell was very unnerving. Not knowing whether someone was watching the camera footage or when someone would pop his/her eye behind the eyehole makes one think in very practical terms of Bentham’s panopticon.

As you pointed out in your WSFII session getting good data is very difficult. See http://gizmonaut.net/bits/propaganda.html which is very much an opinion piece. I’d be very interested to make it more factual, but there doesn’t seem to be any (easy) way to get data on Police actions. Two interesting investigative articles with actual data I read recently are: http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/comment/story/0,16141,1551418,00.html and http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1586887,00.html

br -d