Trouble #5 - You Are Being Watched

Ours is an age of historically unprecedented state and corporate surveillance. Our society's growing addiction to social media, smart phones and other forms of digital communication has ushered in a more interconnected society, but one that is almost entirely dependent on the technological infrastructure of massive telecommunication, software and IT corporations. The rise of surveillance capitalism has also granted state intelligence networks like the NSA with an unfathomably intimate snapshot into our personal lives. These days, everything we do or say online is collected and stored in massive server farms, accessible to intelligence analysts and state security forces at any time of their choosing. These enhanced surveillance capacities have, in turn, revolutionized more traditional methods of gathering intelligence on political dissidents, by helping local and federal police departments map out the networks they hope to infiltrate, and identify prospective targets that are most vulne