ArkrA

Imagine you are a 17-year-old student in the year 1980, and one of the books you’re required to read is a futuristic satire about a tyrannical government and mass surveillance. The novel, 1984, was published in 1949 [1]. You begrudgingly read it, learning about one of the central characters—Big Brother—and how he uses two-way TV monitors and propaganda to control citizens and eliminate privacy. You and your friends laugh at the absurdity of such a fantastical story, then move on with your lives.

 

You are currently living in the year 1984 and have a flashback to your forced reading of Orwell’s 1984 just four years prior. You have just watched the blockbuster futuristic movie The Terminator [2]. The movie is about AI taking over the world and destroying mankind in 2029. The people of 2029 send a time traveler back to 1984 in an effort to change the future they currently live in. You once again find yourself laughing at the absurdity of such a future, just as you and your friends did back in 1980. That same year, you start sending emails using an early version of SMTP [3]. Also in 1984, 90 million Americans have their credit information compromised [4]—but you brush off the news, believing the company will handle it and that it doesn’t affect you directly.

 

You are now in the year 1994, and you hear about a new cellular phone—Simon by IBM [5]—that allows you to send and receive emails, store contacts, and manage a calendar. You’ve long forgotten about the huge data breach of 1984. You’re now working at Lehman Brothers [6], have started a family, bought a house, and are fully immersed in the digital world. Your phone lets you send SMS messages up to 160 characters worldwide. Unbeknownst to you, the 1990s also ushered in a time when your cool cell phone went from analog transmission to the new and powerful digital technology (2G)—introduced in 1991 [7]. From this point forward, all of your personal, business, and consumer information became easily accessible and quickly tracked. Surveillance Capitalism and Digital Identity Theft were born!

 

By the year 2004, AOL suffers a breach of 92 million subscriber records [8]. Unfortunately, you are one of those unlucky souls that has your most private (financial, romantic, and possibly salacious) emails exposed. You receive the all-too-familiar voice notification: “You’ve got mail.” You open it, and to your dismay, you see the image and text that you sent to your friend disparaging the very company you work for. Attached to this email is a blackmail letter demanding $500.00. You pay this blackmailer and hope that your nightmare is over. Almost immediately, you receive another “You’ve got mail” notification. You reluctantly open it, and to your horror, it’s a copy of the message you sent to three of your close friends about an inside scoop on a stock. The current headlines are ablaze with Martha Stewart going to jail for insider trading [9]. The blackmailer now wants $20,000. While what you sent wasn’t exactly insider trading (or was it?), you did break company protocol and could lose your job. You pay the $20K and wonder what other nightmares lurk in the shadows of the digital world. You quickly find out when your friends call you and ask why you're emailing them with requests for money. Then the bank alerts you to hundreds of transactions that you did not make. Your credit cards are frozen. Your checking accounts are frozen. Your life is frozen.

 

The year 2014 sees the continued growth of online shopping and data breaches. After recovering from the devastating results of your identity being stolen and losing your job (just before Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008 [6]), you begin to feel confident and comfortable in your new job at NII Holdings, Inc. [10]. You are enjoying your children, buying and selling collectibles on eBay, and traveling internationally for your job. Then the unthinkable happens—your company files for bankruptcy (one of the largest at over $8 billion) in 2014 [10], and you lose your job again. You are stunned but feel some hope because of your budding business on eBay. Six to seven months later, eBay admits that they were hacked, and the data of 145 million users was exposed [11]. Your world is turned upside down as the bad actors who hacked eBay use phishing and using your stolen passwords to go through every bit of your digital life. They steal your identity again. You are lost and feel the despair of hopelessness.

 

As 2024 and 2025 come into view, you realize 1984 was more than satire—it was a prediction. Big Brother is here. He’s always been here, along with his identity-stealing offspring. The last 45 years have shown you that while technology has advanced and made life easy, privacy has collapsed. You now view “free” services like texting and email with suspicion. In late 2024, news breaks that eight U.S. telecom firms in dozens of countries were impacted by what a White House official calls a Chinese hacking campaign targeting SMS infrastructure [12]. You face the chilling truth: not much has changed since 1994 when the first SMS was sent [13].

 

As 2025 rolls in, you grow more cynical and depressed. News breaks about a leak of confidential cabinet-level information caused by a group text gone wrong. An unfriendly reporter was accidentally added to the inner circle, thanks to the app’s auto-fill feature. You watch ads for the “free” messaging app Signal with disbelief. You wonder: How do they make money? You suspect the answer is your data. You also discover that since the 2004 AOL breach, between 16 and 21 billion accounts have been compromised globally [14]. You constantly see and hear ads for identity theft protection services.

 

As you sink deeper into despair, you feel an innate desire to take your privacy back. You want your life and identity back. You are now willing to pay almost anything to take your digital life back. You say to yourself: “Screw Big Brother.” “Screw identity theft.” You want to be able to text and email, and store your data in a secure and safe place. Your friends are all talking about Invizd. You’ve read about it. You now see Invizd as your escape from despair—your path to finally reclaim your privacy. You see the light. You need to be part of the Invizd revolution!
 

Footnotes

[1] Orwell, George. 1984. Published in 1949 by Secker & Warburg.

[2] The Terminator was released in October 1984.

[3] SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) was first defined in 1982 by RFC 821. [4] In 1984, TRW (a credit bureau, now part of Experian) had its files on 90 million Americans accessed through a security lapse.

[5] IBM Simon Personal Communicator was released in 1994 and is considered the first smartphone.

[6] Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy on September 15, 2008.

[7] 2G mobile networks were launched commercially in 1991 by Radiolinja in Finland.

[8] AOL data breach in 2004 involved the theft of 92 million screen names and email addresses by a former employee. [9] Martha Stewart was convicted in 2004 for obstruction and making false statements in an insider trading investigation.

[10] NII Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 2014, with over $8 billion in liabilities.

[11] eBay disclosed in May 2014 that a cyberattack compromised 145 million accounts.

[12] The Chinese SMS hacking campaign was reported in late 2024, targeting global telecom carriers, according to U.S. national security sources.

[13] The first SMS message (“Merry Christmas”) was sent on December 3, 1992.

[14] According to Surfshark, IBM, and Statista reports, an estimated 16–21 billion user accounts have been compromised globally since 2004.