The Village Voice: 'Red Means Big Brother's in Charge' If the nation were actually to reach red alert status, odds are the "Privacy Threat Index" color chart at
epic.org would be wiped from the virtual world. Red means the government controls everything, the lives of Americans online and off. And the Washington, D.C.-based Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a watchdog group focusing on privacy and technology, is a frequent critic and courtroom challenger of the surveillance-minded Bush administration.
"Red is somewhere between Gattaca" - the science fiction movie in which the state uses genetics to dictate people's lives - "and George Orwell's 1984," said EPIC executive director Marc Rotenberg. "Red means Big Brother's in charge."