The Merriam-Webster definition of privacy is the absence of unauthorized intrusion. Almost everyone will agree that privacy is an integral part of life. It is not necessary to always monitor a person's actions and movements. But in George Orwell's 1984 novel, the citizens of Oceania are under constant surveillance. Their every move is always monitored by TV screens, Party officials are on every street corner listening to their conversations and they never really have any privacy. When the year 1984 arrived here on Earth, people were boasting about how the country was not under extreme lockdown and their every move was not being monitored. But this is changing quickly. The Americans quickly realize that they are in fact still being watched. Americans today face the same problems as citizens of Oceania in 1984, an intrusion into their privacy that has left them in a constant state of surveillance. As people surf the Internet, they are actually under constant surveillance by hundreds of different companies called advertisements. networks that track people across the web and collect personal information about them. This information includes gender, age, income location, medical conditions, sexual orientation, political association, music preferences and many other things. These ad networks then use this information to create advertisements that are displayed to people. This is called behavioral targeting. (Brotherton) Advertising networks may also use this information for various purposes. They will sell the information they collect to third parties, including the government. The government has access to the private details of people's lives. The government is however able to do so, thanks to the “third party document...... middle of paper......oo. Stephen Paskoff, a consultant in Atlanta who advises companies on privacy, said: “The only place you are safe from surveillance is in your private thoughts. " (Hawkins and Mannix) It's looking more and more like 1984, where private thoughts are literally the only safe place. It's almost scary how different the world of 1984 is. George Orwell wasn't that far away. No, the United States of America is not dictated by one person, and citizens are not tortured for saying "Down with Big Brother." Monitored Almost every phone call and every email is read by the NSA to "keep us safe." What people thought was a free country they lived in is also. a heavily monitored country that is gradually losing its privacy and freedom..