Big Brother
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See also: big brother
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
After the nominal leader of Oceania in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Proper noun
- Unwarranted, invasive, and discreet surveillance, especially of a people by its government
- 2002, Lorrie Faith Cranor, Web privacy with P3P, page 12
- Some people are worried about marketing calls at dinnertime or junk mail or spam, while others are more concerned about Big Brother.
- 2008, Bertrand du Castel, Timothy M. Jurgensen Computer Theology, page 314
- When one mentions the concepts of identity and governance in the same breath, a virtually autonomic response from many is the concern that a governmental big brother will soon be looking over their shoulders.
- 2002, Lorrie Faith Cranor, Web privacy with P3P, page 12
- Any omnipresent figurehead representing oppressive control
- 1999, Rebecca A. Grant, Colin John Bennett, Visions of privacy: policy choices for the digital age, page 244
- In the late 1960s and early 1970s, at the height of public concern over the emergence of a Big Brother society, privacy activism shared features in common with some of the hard-line environmental campaigns of the 1990s.
- 2003, Rodney Carlisle, Rodney P. Carlisle, Complete idiot's guide to spies and espionage, page 195
- When the agencies of the federal government spied on the political activities of US citizens, they moved into the grey area between concern with national security and a Big Brother system that violated constitutional protections.
- 1999, Rebecca A. Grant, Colin John Bennett, Visions of privacy: policy choices for the digital age, page 244
Derived terms
Translations
unwarranted and invasive government surveillance
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a figurehead representing oppressive control
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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