{"id":219025,"date":"2025-12-15T18:50:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T18:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/?p=219025"},"modified":"2025-12-15T18:50:51","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T18:50:51","slug":"everything-is-watching-a-field-guide-to-everyday-surveillance-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/everything-is-watching-a-field-guide-to-everyday-surveillance-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything is Watching: A Field Guide to Everyday Surveillance Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"

The problem is not just that we\u2019re being tracked more than ever; it\u2019s that everyone is actively paying for the surveillance. Video doorbell ownership in the US rose from 4% to over a 35% between 2017 and 2024. Smart TVs \u2013 which track and sell your viewing analytics \u2013 are now in 86% of homes, up from 47% a couple of years ago. 75% of cars shipped in 2024 were embedded with cellular modems, permanently streaming live data about drivers and passengers. The average online household in the US has a staggering 17 connected devices. And the data-broker market \u2013 the industry buying and selling your personal information \u2013 will soon reach $500 billion annually.<\/p>\n

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We have more eyes on us than at any point in history, more people analysing our every move, and a lot of questionable legality about it all. Here\u2019s how your connected devices are creating a whole new industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars.<\/p>\n

Phones: The Master Sensors<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that phones are the masters of personal surveillance. Your phone tracks your precise location, frequent destinations, pairs with Bluetooth beacons and Wi-fi networks, and tracks every tap and swipe. It feels every movement you make in your waking life, and even tracks your sleeping habits. The market for all this information is enormous, but not always legal.<\/p>\n

The US Federal Trade Commission sued data broker Kochava for selling location trails tied to visits to clinics and places of worship, with information farmed from \u201chundreds of millions of mobile devices<\/em>\u201d. In 2022 and 2023, Google was ordered to pay a record-breaking multi-state settlement of almost $500 million for misleading location controls affecting up to 250 million users.<\/p>\n

Your TV is Now Watching You<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most smart TVs have built-in capabilities to automatically recognise the content you watch on streaming platforms, and even on HDMI inputs. The FTC found Vizio guilty of tracking 11 million TVs without informed consent from viewers, selling the data for ad targeting \u2013 and paid a fine of $2.2 million.<\/p>\n

Remember this is separate to the surveillance performed by streaming platforms, boxes, and applications themselves, which each collect billions of viewing hours\u2019 worth of data too. This is your TV recognising and recording what\u2019s projected on its screen, even if it comes from an external input like a HDMI cable.<\/p>\n

Doorbells & Home Cameras: The Eyes on Your Street<\/strong><\/p>\n

The presence of video doorbells has increased more than ten-fold in the US in the past few years. They record faces, licence plates and all daily comings-and-goings on your property, often with audio and precise timestamps stored in the cloud. That stream can be accessed by providers, outside reviewers for \u201cquality control<\/em>\u201d, and law enforcement if requested. Essentially, your entire family\u2019s daily, weekly and monthly routines can be mapped by one single doorstep camera. Surveillance cameras don\u2019t need to be installed by governments \u2013 most people are installing them voluntarily.<\/p>\n

In 2023, the FTC charged Ring \u2013 the leading video doorbell provider \u2013 with letting employees and contractors view private videos and failing to stop hackers from taking over cameras. The settlement forced $5.6 million in refunds, data deletion, and security fixes. If you have one of these installed then two-factor authentication, short data retention settings, limited sharing, and any possible encryption should all be very high priorities.<\/p>\n

Smart Speakers & Voice Assistants Are Listening<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speakers transcribe commands and can capture \u201cfalse-wake<\/em>\u201d snippets, with transcripts and audio recordings retained for \u201cquality control<\/em>\u201d and training purposes. Depending on how much someone uses these services, entire calendars, personal relationships, messages and private communications could all be recorded \u2013 even when it \u201caccidentally<\/em>\u201d started listening without an active prompt. The dangers of audio surveillance should not be underestimated.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Amazon agreed to pay $25 million after the FTC and DOJ found that its voice assistant Alexa<\/em> not only stored children\u2019s voice recordings and geolocation information, but also undermined and avoided deletion requests.<\/p>\n

Robot Vacuums & Edge Gadgets Are at It Too<\/strong><\/p>\n

Automated vacuums build precise floor plans, and camera models in your home capture photos that can be stolen. Between the photos and home layouts, valuables and daily patterns can be identified by hackers or shared by internal employees. If you think this is approaching sci-fi paranoia, you should know that it\u2019s already going on.<\/p>\n

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In 2022, Roomba units captured in-home photos and video clips which were sent to a third-party data-labelling contractor to help train its AI. Some of those contractors leaked the images to close social groups, which then spread online. Footage included sensitive moments inside private homes \u2013 such as someone sitting on a toilet \u2013 and the leak exposed a weak point in the chain. When imagery from your home enters a third-party workflow, you\u2019re suddenly relying on multiple organisations\u2019 security and ethics.<\/p>\n

Eufy \u2013 a home camera provider \u2013 experienced a server update error that briefly allowed users to see other customers\u2019 surveillance camera feeds. They were also found guilty of uploading images and thumbnails to the cloud and public URLs even when users selected local-only storage options. Streams and images could be fetched via unprotected URLs, raising concerns about access without proper authorisation.<\/p>\n

Cars Record Much More Than You Think<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three quarters of all cars sold in 2024 were capable of collecting and sharing enormous amounts of data about its drivers and passengers. Logging routes, speed and braking, paired-phone data, and even cabin imagery, they are able to share everything they track to data brokers and insurance providers. Many owners don\u2019t expect a car to perform such expansive surveillance on them, but they monitor more than you think.<\/p>\n

Recently, Texas sued GM for selling driving data to insurers without consent, Tesla employees were found to privately share sensitive customer camera footage, and the FTC later barred GM from selling driver geolocation data for five years.<\/p>\n

So, Why Do People Keep Saying Yes to Surveillance?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most of this monitoring comes paired with features people do actually want. They buy smart doorbells for delivery alerts, accept TV recommendations and use streaming services for their favourite shows, use voice commands to stay organised, and connect to their cars for live traffic updates and remote start capabilities.<\/p>\n

These are each small conveniences that are traded for a high premium: their privacy. The result is a persistent, ever-growing trail of where you live, when you leave, where you go, what you watch, who is at your door or in your car, and how you make decisions. That trail generates billions of dollars for data brokers, ad networks, and pricing engines \u2013 and most people don\u2019t even know it\u2019s occurring.<\/p>\n

How to Reduce Your Trail<\/strong><\/p>\n