IT'S official, we are living in a surveillance state.

The world we live in is becoming frighteningly similar to the world George Orwell warned us about.

Only it arrived a quarter of a century later than predicted.

I learnt the other day that Google Earth now captures satellite images of the globe three times every day.

Images so encroaching, face recognition is now possible from beyond the stratosphere.

Fair enough, Mr Orwell titled his book 1984, but reality seems to be a lot more frightening than he did ever imagine.

The scariest contemplation to make is that surveillance used to monitor the world is owned by the biggest corporation in the world.

What that means, essentially, is that the rise of capitalism is only just beginning.

The divide between rich and poor will only be made worse.

And the Federal Government's budget isn't exactly helping. The age of entitlement is over? Remind me when it began?

A Gladstone woman learnt the difficult way this week that not only is privacy a thing of the past, but your personal privacy is now something you place in the hands of others.

The young girl, who admittedly wore a controversial costume to a private party this week, made a simple decision that may now irreparably damage her future.

It wasn't her that shared the image on the internet.

She did not intend on any single person seeing her costume beyond the 20 people invited to the party. Unfortunately, it has become a national story.

She won't be the first, or the last, to learn the hard way.

Political correctness has gone too far, and will continue to move down that path.

Pretty much, the message is, get used to it, because everyone seems to think their opinion matters when it comes to other people's personal lives.

There's a saying I love - it goes like this "opinions are like a***holes, everyone's got one, doesn't mean everyone wants to know about it".