A surprising irony has come to pass whereby the dystopian predictions of George Orwell have been turned on their head. Big Brother is watching them and not us. By them I mean people and institutions in positions of power such as government and large companies. Computers are here to stay so long as we can still make power to run them. This is because as they are just so very useful and the perfect complement to the human brain. The internet is in its infancy but will also remain so long as there are computers to form networks with. As wireless technology increases the internet becomes ever harder to regulate, the greater the attempts to do so the greater the efforts of resistance. Governments and large companies are able to come under great scrutiny through the sharing and acquisition of information across the internet. It is effectively just a numbers game, there are over seven billion people in the world, the vast majority of which do not work to protect the interests of underhand governments and companies. There will always be more and better hackers and people desiring to expose wrong doing by those in power than there will be trying to prevent them. Money is not the most important resource in such situations but time and the public has a lot more available time than powerful people can command. It is not practicable for any such organization to invest in sufficient internet security, nor forgo the use of computers and as such they will always be at risk of exposure.
WikiLeaks, Anonymous and other such organizations have proven to be rather like the Robin Hood of the information age where they take info from the corrupt and powerful and share it with the ignorant. These new age internet Robin Hood's have received very mixed appraisals, some think their actions immoral, some are fearful for their own interests and some do not like the implications that their government and most powerful institutions are vulnerable or corrupt. I however am in favour of such organizations and collaborations existing as I think they are a great balancing and monitoring service that help ensure power cannot be abused freely. I think it is reasonable to trust these Robin Hood organizations in general to continue acting with the best interest of people in mind and with a strong moral compass. As soon as they lose the support of the non-hacking public they would fail as an institution. Morality will always be a little grey when social change is under way and so rather than asking about the legality of an internet exposure or sharing of information we should be asking about the social benefit.
Knowledge is power and as such the internet has empowered the masses. The old Machiavellian rule of thumb regarding the opportunists lie is no longer a political trick that can easily be got away with. Not only may lies be discovered but they may come with proof to prevent any further lies being given by the culprit to evade the situation. My hope is that the existence of internet hackers exposing wrong doing will persist through the support it has from the public. This support will be given for the public service that the hackers can offer in cleaning up industry and government. This great risk of exposure will create an environment of more honest and morally acting institutions and allow democracies to function better. So long as we applaud the actions which bring to light a major injustice that has been going on and deplore those actions which would come under the same legal classification but that are not helpful to society or are done solely in the interests of the perpetrator then society can begin to enjoy a new kind of regulation over power. This is not something that directly serves to narrow the wealth gap in economic terms however it will bring many of the same benefits that an economic solution would.
George Orwell was right in that as technology has advanced it has become easier to monitor people and their actions. Pleasantly he did not anticipate the abundance of the technology used to do so which allowed the people to watch the governments in vast numbers. It is not all good as people use hacking to further their own ends or make unpopular and/or impractical political statements and demands. These acts while being hard to detect will not go unchallenged as they have neither the support of the government or of the public. If we are sensible in assessing which internet “crimes” are advantageous to society at large and which are not we can be of great help securing a better future for society simply with our approval and disapproval respectively.
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