Surveillance state or dystopian fiction?

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Fact or Fiction?

The idea of government agents spying on citizens may have been treated as a conspiracy theory in the past, but it’s now more of an open secret — even a meme. But the gradual chipping away of our privacy protections is far from funny.

In a technological landscape where nearly everyone uses a smartphone, what would’ve been considered an Orwellian nightmare just a few decades ago is now closer to reality than anyone would’ve hoped. But just how bad is it? For today’s edition of The Bridge, we’ve put together a quiz to try and answer that question. See if you can tell whether these spying tactics are real or just pop-culture tropes.

Surveillance State or Dystopian Fiction?

(Spoiler alert: It’s worse than you think.)

Our privacy and freedom are under existential threat. Technology has advanced at a rapid pace, and significant parts of our lives have migrated into the digital realm. But legislation to protect our rights in the digital sphere has been slow to keep up.

We know that certain government agencies are abusing loopholes in the law to sidestep Fourth Amendment warrant protections and buying people’s browsing and location data from data brokers. But our personal information should not be a commodity. Thankfully, the coming weeks present a rare and ripe opportunity to ban this practice and close the loopholes in digital privacy law.

Read more about the data broker loophole and subscribe to POGO’s emails to learn how you can take action to help shut down this sneaky practice.

Thanks for reading.

—SK