Enemy of the State

We only saw a short clip from Enemy of the State, but it was apparent that the security in this society related to 1984. The surveillance in 1984 and in Enemy of the State was very similar. In the movie Enemy of the State, Will Smith’s character gets involved with a crime because his old college friend drops a tape in his pocket before getting hit by a car. He has no knowledge of the tape, but it is implied that it won’t be long until the government begins searching for him. The government in this society is able to search for and track down anyone that they are suspicious of using wire-tapping. In 1984, Big Brother can watch anyone from the telescreen and listen to what they are saying. This makes it easy for both societies to know when someone is doing something wrong, but it also a huge invasion of privacy. This drove people in Oceania to not trust anyone or anything. They always had to have their guard up.
I don’t agree with this type of personal invasion, and there is much debate going on today about surveillance like this. Listening in on apparent criminals could prevent crimes, but how do we draw the line between criminals and people who aren’t criminals? Like in this movie, people can be in the wrong place at the wrong time and then have their privacy completely taken away from them.