Surveillance and Dataveillance; Has George Orwell's 1984 prophecy been fulfilled?

The famous George Orwell Novel Nineteen Eighty-Four has created a huge cultural impact, there’s no conspiricy theorist, skeptic or person who is ready to question the establishment that won't refer to it. The dystopian novel portrays a society which is under watch by 'Big Brother' 24 hours 7 days a week and projects strong themes of Censorship and Surviellance. The predictions of this novel reflecting our own society havn't rang true, there is no Junior Anti-Sex-League stopping our species reproducing, (thank god!!) but thinking critically about our situation have we in fact become a surveillance state?

Surveillance is happening throughout the majority of society to so much of an extent data is collected on a huge aspect of our daily lives, no matter how trivial a task you may have been doing. Your credit card transactions, your purchases at the checkout right down to your train ticket purchase is all broken down into specific data, something which is collected analysed and recorded for a purpose. On an average day it is estimated that you could be caught on camera up to 300 times, we have became one of the most watched nations in the world. Aside from the aspect of public security on the streets or public transport etc what is becoming central to great debate is the notion of 'Dataveillance."

Author and public speaker Roger Clarke defines Dataveillance in his works by stating that it is "the systematic monitoring of people's actions or communications through the application of information technology." Through this we gain an understanding that the notion of privacy is being eroded and that we have in fact become a state that is monitored 24 hour 7 days a week. Your internet usage is tracked, your purchases, your travels and even dislikes and likes are recorded through the medium of social media.

Another side to this debate is also the idea that not only are we under surveillance but we allow ourselves to be survived. Facebook's latest feature allows users to 'Check in' displaying their location in news feeds and even 'tagging' who they are with. Is it really necessary to document where you are or are we just getting caught up in the novelty of accessibility and information?