WHEN I log on to my computer these days I am wary of the "big Brother is watching you" syndrome.

These words were written by George Orwell in his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty four.

Published in 1949, it is set in a totalitarian world where the State controls society through clandestine surveillance and physiological manipulation. Citizens, known as Proles, live their lives under constant supervision of the State’s notorious thought Police.

But my fears are not those of Orwell’s hero, Winston Smith, who rebelled against the State’s intrusion into his innermost thoughts, but of the multibillion-dollar corporations who seem to dominate every aspect of our burgeoning online dependence. Banking, buying, bill payment, booking travel or just book browsing are increasingly computer-based activities.

My Winston Smith-like moment was the sudden realisation that the Googles, Microsofts, Facebooks and the like are increasingly intruding into my online life.

I do a search for a holiday in Indonesia and every site I open up afterwards is dominated by adverts from travel companies spruiking wonderful Bali hotels or flights to Denpasar. I use a price comparison site to find cheap motor insurance and my email inbox is jammed full of junk mail from every car insurance company under the sun.

I post a note on a social network describing last night’s great Italian meal and my web friends are bombarded with pizza deal offers. big Brother seems to be alive and well but it’s now the private-sector internet version.

But now things have gone too far. I cringed when I opened my inbox the other day. there, as large as life, was an email exhorting me to buy the world’s best, clinically proven, satisfaction-guaranteed pills for the enlargement of a certain organ.

I was gob-smacked. How on earth did they know? I couldn’t remember doing searches for dodgy medication, sexy underwear or anything remotely connected with my masculinity.

Then it suddenly dawned on me. I often forget to draw the bathroom blinds when I take a shower. I’m not too worried since the bathroom is not overlooked by any neighbours, just a quiet suburban street. and I also picked up that one or two of the internet mapping sites have recently introduced street views of our neighbourhood. It must have been one of those pesky little cars with a revolving camera on top. the timing of my public exposure was obviously perfect.

So beware! big Brother is watching and all our deficiencies could well be on display. now every aspiring entrant into dodgy markets for improving our lives by being bigger, smaller, thinner, more muscular, more beautiful and richer or any other unobtainable aspiration has access to our innermost desires. the thought Police have arrived in corporate form.

So what is to be done? I think I’ll take a leaf out of Winston Smith’s book and start a blog with "Down with Corporate big Brothers" blazoned across its pages. I’ll invite comment from all protesting Proles out there and wait in fear and trepidation to be hauled off to the "Ministry of Love" to be re-educated in the ways of cyber-corporate compliance. George Orwell would turn in his grave.

Peter Quick is a Sunshine Coast writer.

<a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/big-brother-is-watching-web-habits/story-fn6ck620-1226230740989tag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/big-brother-is-watching-web-habits/story-fn6ck620-1226230740989Mon, 26 Dec 2011 14:13:24 GMT”>Big Brother is watching web habits

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Tags: booking travel, clandestine surveillance, dollar corporations, george orwell, winston smith

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