The Lives Of Others

Privacy, “the state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people.” A concept which once had meaning and validity, however that concept is challenged today in modern day times as a result of technological advances. One may not feel observed or disturbed by other people, although with the introduction on interconnected devices, global position services, cellular towers, as well as with the internet that concept of being private slowly disappears. All the data transmitted through these devices are stored in databases, digested by algorithms, and served up for various purposes. The more we as a society move towards technology and easy-to-access information the less sensitive private data individuals retain. Previously as we seen in the 1984 German film “The Lives of Others,” in-order to spy on someone it required a fleet of tools, tails, bugged locations, and a

In order for the German Stasi police to fully profile their target, it required them to issue a three man team consisting of, two alternating onsite Stasi agents and a Stasi general along with a partial informant as well as the support of the government in-order to keep tabs on one man. Despite the Stasi’s efforts they still had other variables preventing them from successfully spying on people, such as empathy. Simply empathy in the case of “The Lives of Others” resulted in the derailing of this case along with some unfortunate events. Because of a Stasi agent developing feelings for his subjects he then acted against his authorities, by obscuring and omitting information. Actions such as these are the precise reasons why this case failed, the technological devices used to keep tabs on Georg Dreyman the subject being spied on in the film functioned perfectly well and went undetected during the duration of the investigation and even years