Big Brother
Etymology
From George Orwell’s novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (1949), where "Big Brother" is the omnipresent, possibly fictional leader of a totalitarian state whose posters warn "Big Brother is watching you." The name became the standard shorthand for invasive surveillance and authoritarian control. It has since attached to corporate data-gathering as readily as to governments.
noun phrase · /BIG BRUHTH-er/
A pervasive authority that watches and controls people under the guise of protection.
What it names
The go-to figure for intrusive mass surveillance by a state or corporation.
Example
Employees complained that the new tracking software was Big Brother in the workplace.
Related idea
The adjective Orwellian describes the whole apparatus of doublethink and propaganda; Big Brother is its watching face — the system versus the figurehead of surveillance.