I wonder if our densely populated urban areas don't already approach surveillance levels similar to in China. I live in a rural area, and I'm rarely on camera, but I sometimes am when I shop and provision.

I think it's safe to assume that people living in big cities spend great parts of their daily lives on camera.

Granted, government agencies don't have routine access to all that data, and that's a big difference. But we're still collecting it, and government agencies do use it sometimes when they can get permission.

I'm just wondering out loud how far we really are from the sort of pervasive surveillance like you describe.