Causes Of George Orwell's 1984: The Right To Privacy

Acknowledging this and moving on, a precedent would have been set whose effect could have been very catalytic had Apple created and released a firmware version with a backdoor. Complying with the FBI’s request would have enabled the government’s actions and perpetuated the notion that the government is righteous and has no boundaries in its quest to stop terrorism. This would bolster the superficial power of the government, snowballing into an omniscient government that constantly tracks its citizens as fictionalized in George Orwell’s 1984. There is no need to deliberate too long to see the consequences of such a society. The Patriot Act was signed into law shortly after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 “to deter and punish terrorist acts in

Citizens may also feel that the government has lost their trust by choosing to keep them under continuous surveillance. This leads to the original cause of surveillance, “why are we being watched?” And this naturally flows into, “is it necessary”? The manner in which it is carried out also plays a role in the ethics. Function creep is a factor to take into account as many times surveillance can take on a new use that may or may not be justifiable. Allowing the government to constantly surveil its citizens exerts its power and can become over powered. There are also many other ethical reasons that include the evidence that the proliferation of surveillance does not help, and in some cases can even hinder, the chances of catching a terrorist or suspect. It also is a very large financial burden and then even more so weighing what comes of it, which is nothing if speaking in terms of terrorism (which is why surveillance exists according to Patriot Act). This, like many other cases concerning privacy and surveillance, beg the question where is the line drawn and who is responsible for enforcing

Many say that what the FBI did was “lawful hacking” and there is merit in it because it exposes the vulnerabilities within a system that can then be used to patch and strengthen the system. The ethics behind “lawful hacking” is another discussion entirely but arguing on the belief that it is a sound institution with value, we can get more into the FBI’s involvement. Lawful hacking by white hat hackers has merit and aids in finding vulnerabilities in given systems provided that the vulnerabilities are released to the victim. The FBI has yet to reveal how they were able to acquire the data on the phone and are under pressure to release it. It is the responsibility of the attacker to inform the victim of security flaws in order to stay true to the nature of their work and the FBI is not following