1984 - "Truthiness"

Ministry Of Truth Helpfully Redefines Privacy

By Chris Weigant – huffington post

A United States Ministry of Truth spokesman proudly unveiled the new official definition of "privacy" today, on the heels of their successful campaign to redefine "torture." The new meaning of the word "privacy" will now be (according to MiniTru): "the secure feeling citizens get by knowing that their government is collecting and protecting their personal data." Old definitions of privacy will no longer be operative.

The MiniTru spokesman was quite enthusiastic about the definition rollout. "For generations Americans have been burdened by the responsibility of guarding their own privacy," he said. "This was too great a task for the public to adequately control, so the logical answer was to have the government take over this onerous work, to better serve each citizen's private life. No longer will Americans have to worry about their own privacy, because now Big Brother will take care of it for them."

OK, I made those quotes up, I admit. But I'm sad to say I didn't make up the story itself. Both the AP and the New York Times have stories about principal deputy director of national intelligence Donald Kerr's recent speech [PDF transcript] to the Geospatial Intelligence Foundation. Here are some of the quotes from Kerr:

"Our job now is to engage in a productive debate, which focuses on privacy as a component of appropriate levels of security and public safety."

. . ..

"Too often, privacy has been equated with anonymity, but in our interconnected and wireless world, anonymity -- or the appearance of anonymity -- is quickly becoming a thing of the past

While Chris was being creative as he began his article you quickly come to realize that in reading between the lines of deputy director of national intelligence Donald Kerr's recent comments Chris’ interpretation was pretty darn close.