We live in a surveillance society and always have.

Multiple organizations track our daily activities,

often with the help of geospatial technologies, including mobile phones, satellite remote sensing,
and sophisticated mapping systems. The practice of tracking populations is not new. Governments,
in particular, have long conducted surveillance of individuals and groups for centuries, although they
have been joined by a host of companies and other groups. For most of human history, however,
surveillance was limited in scope because it required a lot of human resources. The advent of
computers and computing networks has vastly expanded the ability of government agencies,
commercial firms, and other organizations to monitor millions of people.

There are three recent drivers of expanded surveillance, which threaten to fundamentally rewrite
the rules about how government agencies, commercial firms, and other organizations keep tabs on
individuals.

The first significant driver is our ever-improving technology which has become less expensive and
faster.

The second driver of expanded surveillance is the rise of the politics of fear and security. Although
we live in a safer world by most measures than ever before, many people feel less safe and less
secure than in the past. This mismatch is numerous and complex, but in general, there is evidence
that bad news travels faster than it ever has before. It is therefore essential to combat these politics.
The news is filled with stories of danger and tragedy worldwide, stories we would not have heard
about by just relying on the newspaper or evening news. We have also seen an increase of, and
desire for, a range of surveillance technologies, such as cameras put in private and public spaces in
the name of safety.

The third major driver in the growth of surveillance is the personalization of tracking. In general, we
have moved from a situation where a person was observed or tracked in one or two places, like at a
border crossing, to a situation where a person can be observed directly or indirectly at almost all
times. Today a person can be seen by dozens of cameras a day and their face or license plate
number can automatically be matched against databases. Essentially every online interaction you
have, be it looking up directions on a map or looking at shoes on a website, is tracked by multiple
organizations, ranging from private sector companies to government agencies.