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EDITORIAL: Smile, you’re on camera — all day, all the time

“Big Brother is watching you” is a slogan popularized by George Orwell’s novel “1984,” which warns of the dangers of a totalitarian state. These days, however, it also reflects the notion of fiction becoming reality.

The rise of the Internet Age has led to an explosion of technology capable of surveillance on a scale that would have been unimaginable a generation ago. The debate over how much privacy Americans are willing to sacrifice in return for the conveniences of modern life is over — and privacy lost. Yet many people may still be blissfully unaware, their faces buried in that small screen in their hand, of the extent to which their personal activity is available in the public domain — and how law enforcement utilizes technology to monitor the citizenry.

Enter the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which — in a collaboration with UNR’s Reynolds School of Journalism — has created The Atlas of Surveillance to compile information on thousands of government agencies and the tools they use to snoop on the public. The database includes a number of fun facts about Southern Nevada:

■ The Metropolitan Police Department and the Henderson Police Department have agreements with Amazon’s home surveillance company, Ring, “to gain special access to the company’s Neighbors app.”

■ Automated license plate readers are placed throughout the valley, providing information to police agencies in Clark County.

■ Reid International Airport began using facial recognition technology in 2019.

■ Both Metro and Henderson police operate numerous drones, which could potentially lead to violations of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on warrantless searches. The Supreme Court has yet to weigh in on the issue.

Much of this activity may be benign and routine in the pursuit of reasonable law enforcement aims. Yet the temptation to cut legal corners and to expand government monitoring beyond what is appropriate is a very real concern.

“We might not be able to completely preserve our anonymity,” J.D. Tucille of reason.com wrote, “but we should make every attempt to reduce the danger those monitoring us can pose with the information they gather.”

Indeed, an overactive surveillance state — both public and private — may be the greatest threat to civil liberty in the 21st century. The Atlas of Surveillance serves a vital purpose in cataloging and publicizing the scope of the potential intrusion by law enforcement agencies in an effort to ensure that the state stays within constitutional boundaries. It will be up to Americans to take it from there if they hope to avoid elevating the illusion of security above the danger of tyranny.

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