Privacy is...Theft? (Circle Post 3)

As we delve deeper into the world of The Circle I am constantly reminded of the dystopian future about which Orwell warned everyone nearly a century ago.  Hearing about how everything is connected to everything else reminds me of the telescreens in every home in the world of 1984 and the ever-present Thought Police.  One thing that has especially reminded me of the invasive nature of the Big Brother government are the three beliefs of The Circle: "Secrets are lies", "Sharing is caring", and "Privacy is theft". These are similar to the three phrases often repeated in 1984, "Freedom is slavery", "war is peace", and "ignorance is strength".  These slogans were repeated in 1984 to condition the citizens to believe them absent-mindedly, and it seems as if the three mantras of The Circle exist for a similar purpose.

One of the mantras that seems particularly important at this point in the novel is "privacy is theft".  The main purpose of TruYou is not only to connect every aspect of one's life to the internet for convenience reasons, but also to make every aspect of one's life available to the public.  This is further illustrated with the invention of SeeChange, the small HD cameras that pick up everything in real time.  Now, not only is all of a person's information and social media available to the public, but anyone anywhere in the world can see and hear what that person is doing.  This makes life very transparent and almost completely removes privacy.

Because everyone at The Circle is so engrossed in Circle culture, they seem to go along with whatever The Circle is doing without question.  This includes the systematic erasure of privacy.  One such circumstance occurred on pages 176-179.  Dan met with Mae to ask how she was doing at The Circle, and it was revealed that Mae went to another store rather than use the company store.  Soon, Dan was bringing up all sorts of things about Mae, like how she barely used any of the company's facilities or hadn't posted anything about a company event.  That encounter was followed by an interrogation by Denise and Josiah about why Mae wasn't broadcasting every action in her life to everyone in The Circle.  Everyone acted personally offended that Mae wasn't sharing every detail of her life with everyone.

I can somewhat see a point in the "privacy is theft" mantra.  There are some instances in which I can understand the harm of withholding information, such as a witness not giving a full story to a judge or a patient not giving a doctor all of the symptoms he or she is experiencing.  In both cases, not all information is presented and it can cause serious harm to people.  However, withholding information such as pictures from a party or telling someone you've gone kayaking is definitely not detrimental to anyone's health and it certainly doesn't put a company's reputation at risk, as Denise, Josiah and Dan seem to believe.  I do not agree that withholding each and every detail of one's life is harmful to anyone, but in a company like The Circle and with a program like TruYou, I am not in the least bit surprised that the Circlers seem to think that it is.