The Economics Of Surveillance

You are being watched.

Surveillance of your activities – and those of most Americans – is now just a fact of everyday life. People are monitored when they browse the Web, when they use their cellphones, when they drive and when they use their credit cards, among other things.

The Wall Street Journal analyzed a variety of everyday situations and found more than 20 different ways that people’s information is regularly recorded. That number does not include special situations such as border crossings or surveillance that occurs only when someone is suspected of a crime.

A story in today’s Journal also looks at the spread of digital tracking through the lens of one technology – automatic license plate readers, which photograph license plates at blazing speed and record the number and location. These devices are just one example of how routine it has become for Americans’ normal behavior to be watched by both government and corporate entities.