NY Times: How World's Become a Surveillance State

The world has become a surveillance state, The New York Times editorial board chronicles in a seven-part feature on it's opinion pages.

"We are living in the world's most advanced surveillance system," Part I on its investigation of the smartphone tracking industry concludes. "This system wasn't created deliberately. It was built through the interplay of technological advance and the profit motive. It was built to make money. The greatest trick technology companies ever played was persuading society to surveil itself."

The series parts include:

• What We Found (One Nation, Tracked)
• National Security (How to Track President Donald Trump)
• One Neighborhood (Where Even the Children Are Being Tracked)
• Protests (How Your Phone Betrays Democracy)
• Solutions (Total Surveillance Is Not What America Signed Up For)
• Protect Yourself (Freaked Out? 3 Steps to Protect Your Phone)
• How It Works (Smartphones Are Spies. Here's Whom They Report To).

"The data reviewed by Times opinion didn't come from a telecom or giant tech company, nor did it come from a governmental surveillance operation. It originated from a location data company, one of dozens quietly collecting precise movements using software slipped onto mobile phone apps. You’ve probably never heard of most of the companies — and yet to anyone who has access to this data, your life is an open book. They can see the places you go every moment of the day, whom you meet with or spend the night with, where you pray, whether you visit a methadone clinic, a psychiatrist's office or a massage parlor.

• Michael Dorstewitz: Schiff Confirmed Barr's Claim of Democratic Spying
• China's Surveillance Surge Exposes Privacy of Millions