Whether for security, marketing, or advertising, it seems Americans are always under surveillance now. Just how much surveillance are average Americans encountering on a daily basis? Heather Ginsberg investigated for the November issue of Townhall Magazine.
Highways
Many drivers go through tolls on their daily commutes. Several years ago, the E-ZPass was created to make it faster and easier to travel through toll roads. But now it appears these passes are being used to track drivers in areas of New York City where there are no toll booths, Forbes reports. Officials from the New York Department of Transportation said they are using the tracking of E-ZPasses to give real-time traffic updates. Supposedly, the tags are not stored and can't be used to identify specific E-ZPasses.
ATMs
Need to withdraw money from the ATM? Say, "Cheese!" Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) can also have cameras monitoring ATM users. The purpose of these cameras is try and deter theft and confrontations at the ATM.
Cellphones
Using your phone is about as secure as sending an email (in other words, not very secure). Earlier this year, the government was able to demand a log of calls made by millions of Verizon customers over a three-month period, including as US News reports, "phone numbers of both parties on a call, location data, unique identifiers and the time and duration of calls." Actual contents of the call were not disclosed.
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