In 1984, George Orwell described that no matter where you go in Oceania, there is a TV screen right there watching you. Whatever you say or think sometimes, Big Brother will know. 1984 was written in 1949 and Orwell was referring to technology that never existed. Perhaps he saw it coming because of the growing popularity of television. There are many ideas in this novel predicted by Orwell. Some came true in 1984, some didn't, but today in the United States there is a similar privacy problem to the one described in 1984. Of course, technology has not developed exactly as Orwell had it. had predicted, but he wasn't too far off. off.In Oceania, Big Brother was in charge. No one knew who he was or even if he existed. Everyone learned to love Big Brother without question, so no one asked. Winston saw things written all over town, things like “BIG BROTHER ISWATCHING” (6). And it was true, Big Brother was always watching. He had eyes everywhere, and those eyes were the TV screens. They were inside homes, in public places, at work, anywhere there was a white wall. Because of this, people were hesitant to say or do things that might appear to be against Big Brother in any way. In one instance in the novel, a woman walks towards Winston. He sees that her hand is injured and she falls down because of the injured hand and Winston helps her up. But the woman hides her pain because she knows that any sign of weakness can land her in trouble. She knows someone is always watching her. At the beginning of the novel, we see that Winston is annoyed by the television screens constantly monitoring his entire life. In the morning, at work... in the middle of paper......, even if someone has the same name as us, we can still distinguish ourselves because we have social security numbers, different telephone numbers and addresses. But these numbers which are given to us as ours are asked for every day for “surveys”, to make purchases, to register for anything. “BigBrother” is us after all. These numbers, supposed to identify us as we are, are in the hands of thousands of people who have our lives in their hands and who can probably easily steal our identity at any time. And I'm supposed to feel safe giving out my social security number at school, at work, or wherever I'm asked? Identity theft in the 21st century is easier than ever, but at the same time it's much harder not to get caught, but stealing someone's identity is becoming extremely easy. Nobody is safe.