A Day in the FUTURE

A Day in the //FUTURE

A short story about the impact online surveillance can have on our lives.

By Domonic Bishop

Noah listened to his teacher as best he could, trying to stop himself thinking about the rain outside, because with rain there would likely come what Noah feared more than anything else in the whole wide world. Noah’s teacher read a story to the class, about how by watching what everyone does all the time “we have been able to stop anyone in the world doing anything bad ever”. This wasn’t the first time the class had heard this story, they had been told it everyday.

Later on, when Noah had his tea and had gone to bed, what Noah had been worried about happening in the class that day began to happen, outside he could hear the lightning crashing and inside he could see it flashing through the curtains in his bedroom!

Noah was so scared he couldn’t shut his eyes, so he did what he always did when there was lightning. Noah went to his mum and dad's room and slept with them in their bed, that was Noah’s only hope of getting to sleep that night.

The next day at school a boy named Tom came over. Noah didn’t really like Tom, his dad worked for the police so he always acted like he was better than everyone else. Tom had a grin on his face.

“I know you ran to your mum and dad's bed last night” said Tom, still grinning “I was on my dad's computer this morning and saw the whole thing”. Noah was scared, Tom was going to tell everyone what had happened and then everyone would laugh at him forever. Everyone was going to believe him because everyone knew it was Tom’s dad’s job to watch everyone all the time, even when everyone went to bed...

//The End

I hope this has helped you understand, that there are risks we face as online surveillance becomes common practice for the governments of today.

And you can do something about it!

There is a bill (Investigatory Powers Act) that would allow UK intelligence agencies and police an unreasonable amount of access to your activity online.

Click the button below to sign the petition, and help do something about stopping this!