ive been mapping the control grid for multiple years. not abstract control. physical control. GEOGRAPHIC SURVEILLANCE AS ARCHITECTURE. i wanted to see how they track movement. how they monitor location. how they turned physical space itself into a monitoring system.
coordinates used to mean nothing. latitude longitude just numbers. now every coordinate is logged. stored. analyzed. your phone knows where you are every second. every app requests location. every service tracks movement. for convenience for control.
movement creates data. data reveals patterns. patterns predict behavior. they dont need to watch you. they just need to know where youve been. where you are. where youre going. YOUR LOCATION IS YOUR LIFE STORY.
your phone pings cell towers constantly. even when youre not using it. even when location services are off. phone has to connect to nearest tower to receive calls. each ping logged. each tower records your presence. CONTINUOUS LOCATION LOGGING DISGUISED AS SERVICE.
police buy location data from data brokers. no warrant needed. buy data from apps. from ad networks. from companies that collect location data from millions of phones. can track anyone. can see where anyone was at any time. where they slept. where they work. who they meet. movement becomes evidence.
january sixth capitol riot. fbi used geofence warrants. requested google provide data on every phone near capitol building during riot. google complied. sent data on thousands of people. people who were just nearby. people who were walking past. people who had nothing to do with riot. PROXIMITY BECAME GUILT.
geofence warrants everywhere now. crime happens. police request data on every phone in area. cast wide net. everyone in radius becomes suspect. being in wrong place at wrong time now means surveillance. means investigation. means reasonable suspicion AUTOMATED SUSPICION.
google maps tracks everywhere you go. creates timeline of your life. shows where you were every day going back years. can see patterns. can see routines. can see the coffee shop you visit every morning. the gym three times per week. the house you visit every friday night. YOUR AFFAIR IS IN YOUR LOCATION HISTORY.
tried turning off location services. apps stopped working. uber cant work. food delivery cant work. maps cant work. weather app cant work. social media loses features. dating apps become useless. turning off location means opting out of modern convenience. and convenience is mandatory now.
wifi and bluetooth still track when gps off. phone scans for wifi networks constantly. each network has unique id. stores map wifi networks to locations. can triangulate position from wifi networks phone can see. same with bluetooth beacons. stores have bluetooth beacons that ping phones. NO ESCAPE THROUGH SETTINGS.
researchers bought location data. twenty dollars. got location history of thousands of people. including secret service agents. military personnel. people who work at cia headquarters. could track their movements. could see their homes. could see everywhere they went. NATIONAL SECURITY COMPROMISED BY DATA BROKERS. but data brokers are legal. buying location data is legal. selling your movements is business.
automatic license plate readers everywhere. toll booths. police cars. parking lots. intersections. gas stations. shopping centers. cameras photograph every license plate. store location. store timestamp. COMPREHENSIVE VEHICLE TRACKING INFRASTRUCTURE.
vigilant solutions database has over eight billion license plate scans. eight billion. updated constantly. can search any plate. see everywhere that car has been photographed. going back years. comprehensive movement history of every vehicle. this is for finding criminals this is mass surveillance of drivers.
ice uses license plate readers to track immigrants. doesnt need warrants. buys access to private databases. companies that install readers on tow trucks. on repo vehicles. on private security cars. creating surveillance network from private profit motive. capitalism building deportation infrastructure.
modern cars are surveillance devices. teslas have cameras pointing everywhere. recording constantly. ford patented system to listen for speeding. report speeders to police. gm selling driver behavior data to insurance companies. hard braking. rapid acceleration. time of day driving. all monitored. all sold. YOUR CAR REPORTS ON YOU.
connected cars send data constantly. location. speed. routes. driving habits. maintenance needs. everything transmitted to manufacturer. manufacturers sell data. share with government. police can request data. insurance companies buy data. VEHICLE AS TRACKING DEVICE WITH WHEELS.
read about man whose car insurance went up. asked why. company said his driving patterns indicated risk. he asked for data. company showed everywhere he drove. every time he drove. every hard brake. every acceleration. his car was a spy. reporting everything. HE PAID FOR HIS OWN SURVEILLANCE.
ezpass tolls track you. can see where you enter highway. where you exit. can calculate speed. can issue speeding tickets based on time stamps. youre not just paying toll. youre logging your travel. creating database of your routes. your patterns. your destinations.
rental cars have gps trackers. rental agreements say they can track you. can charge you for going too fast. for leaving allowed area. for driving at wrong times. acme car rental charged customers extra for driving to canada. tracker logged border crossing. movement restriction through surveillance pricing.
clearview ai scraped three billion faces from internet. facebook. instagram. linkedin. twitter. everywhere people post photos. built database. sells to police. to government. to private companies. YOUR FACE IS IN THE DATABASE. you never consented. never agreed. doesnt matter.
police upload photo from crime scene. clearview searches database. finds matches. shows where those faces appeared in other photos. other locations. other times. can track person through their appearances in background of strangers photos. TRACED THROUGH DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS YOU DIDNT KNOW YOU LEFT.
london has over six hundred thousand cctv cameras. one camera for every thirteen people. newcastle trial scanned every face entering city center. one point seven million scans in single month. compared faces to watchlist. flagged matches. stopped people. questioned them. for safety for control.
china took it further. installed two hundred million surveillance cameras. facial recognition at every intersection. every entrance. every public space. connects to social credit system. camera recognizes your face. knows your score. knows if youre allowed to be there. jaywalk and lose points. camera sees you. system knows. automated social enforcement.
tried wearing mask. this was before covid made masks normal. security guard stopped me. said i had to remove mask. store policy. cant hide your face. after covid they say same thing. remove mask so we can verify your identity. your face is your ticket. your permit. your authorization to exist in public space. ANONYMITY CRIMINALIZED.
airports use facial recognition. tsa scans your face. compares to id. compares to database. tracking you through airport. through security. through boarding. clear program sells biometric fast pass. pay to give them face scan. fingerprints. iris scan. PAY TO BE SURVEILLED. and people do. millions enrolled. giving biometrics for convenience.
retail stores testing facial recognition. recognize shoppers. track which aisles you visit. how long you look at products. if you picked something up and put it back. combine with purchase history. create profile. predict what youll buy. YOUR SHOPPING HABITS READ FROM YOUR FACE.
madison square garden banned lawyers suing them. facial recognition at entrance. scans every face. compares to banned list. lawyer walked up. camera recognized her. security stopped her. escorted her out. she had ticket. didnt matter. her face was on the list. AUTOMATED EXCLUSION. no discussion. no appeal. algorithm decides who enters.
smart cities are surveillance cities. sensors in everything. cameras everywhere. tracking all movement. all behavior. all activity. CITIES AS MONITORING PLATFORMS. infrastructure that watches. analyzes. responds.
sidewalk labs wanted to build smart city in toronto. sensors in sidewalks. cameras on every corner. track pedestrians. cyclists. vehicles. weather. noise. everything. monetize the data. sell insights. city as product. residents as data sources. SURVEILLANCE AS URBAN PLANNING. project cancelled after backlash. but the vision remains. other cities implementing pieces.
smart streetlights with cameras. with microphones. with environmental sensors. with wifi tracking. with cell site simulators. disguised as infrastructure improvement. as energy efficiency. as public safety. but collecting everything. light poles that watch and listen.
san diego installed smart streetlights. three thousand lights with sensors. promised to reduce energy use. improve traffic flow. enhance safety. actually used for surveillance. police accessing feeds. tracking protesters. monitoring communities. city council voted to disable them after outcry. but sensors still there. waiting to be reactivated.
bike sharing programs track every ride. start location. end location. route taken. time. speed. sold as green transportation. as urban mobility. but creating movement database. showing who goes where when. patterns of life from bike rides. TRANSPORTATION AS TRACKING.
public transit cards track you. tap in. tap out. system knows your route. your schedule. your patterns. can see youre going to work. can see youre going home. can see the unusual trip. the deviation from routine. for service improvement FOR MOVEMENT PROFILING.
parking apps know where you parked. when you parked. how long you stayed. combined with other data can infer why you were there. medical appointment. job interview. affair. parked near abortion clinic. app knows. YOUR PARKING HISTORY REVEALS SECRETS.
google maps shows popular times. shows how busy location is. how long people spend there. gets this data from tracking millions of phones. aggregate movement patterns. shows when restaurant is crowded. but means google knows when you went. how long you stayed. who you were near. CONVENIENCE POWERED BY MASS SURVEILLANCE.
borders are biometric checkpoints now. fingerprints. face scans. iris scans. passport photos compared to real-time camera. database checks against watchlists. against travel history. against associates. CROSSING BORDER MEANS FULL BIOMETRIC CAPTURE.
cbp can search your phone. can search your laptop. no warrant needed. border search exception. fourth amendment doesnt apply. they can read your messages. see your photos. access your apps. copy everything. you can refuse. but then you dont enter. or you miss your flight home. consent through coercion.
global entry means giving biometrics. fingerprints. face scan. iris scan. background check. interview. pay for the privilege. then they let you skip line. convenience in exchange for comprehensive biometric enrollment. millions signed up. PAID TO JOIN BIOMETRIC DATABASE.
airlines share passenger data. apis. advance passenger information system. sends your details to destination country before you land. name. birthday. passport number. flight details. some countries want more. want your hotel. your purpose. your contacts. for security for tracking foreigners.
traveled to wrong country and youre flagged. flew to iran. to syria. to libya. now youre on secondary screening list. now every flight means extra search. extra questions. extra time. your travel history determines your risk level. determines how youre treated. GUILTY BY GEOGRAPHY.
no fly list has over twenty thousand names. never told if youre on it until you try to fly. cant get off. cant appeal effectively. senator ted kennedy was on it. took weeks to remove. ordinary citizens have no chance. PERMANENT TRAVEL RESTRICTION WITHOUT TRIAL.
israel tracks palestinians. permits required for movement. checkpoints everywhere. biometric id cards. facial recognition at barriers. gps tracking of vehicles. GEOGRAPHY AS PRISON. your location determines your rights. your freedom. your humanity.
fifteen minute cities they call it. everything you need within fifteen minutes. sounds nice. sounds convenient. but also means tracking if you leave your zone. means knowing who goes where. means ability to restrict movement. to lockdown by zone. to control through geography. urban design as control mechanism.
this is the grid. not science fiction. not future dystopia. current reality. EVERY MOVEMENT LOGGED EVERY LOCATION TRACKED EVERY JOURNEY RECORDED. phones. cameras. license plates. facial recognition. sensors. wifi. bluetooth. biometrics. all working together. all sharing data.
cant move without being seen. cant travel without being logged. cant exist in space without creating data trail. your coordinates are your identity. your movement is your story. your location history is PROOF OF YOUR LIFE.
they say its for safety. for security. for convenience. for efficiency. but safety means surveillance. security means tracking. convenience means monitoring. efficiency means optimization CONTROL.
people say if youre not doing anything wrong why worry. but wrong is redefined constantly. wrong is wherever algorithm decides. wrong is proximity to wrong person. wrong place. wrong time. wrong is determined after they track you not before.
watch how quickly it changed. twenty years ago location tracking rare. expensive. required effort. now its automatic. ubiquitous. free. built into everything. next twenty years? COMPLETE COVERAGE. no gaps. no blind spots. no escape.
drones with cameras. satellites with recognition. sensors in smart dust. cameras in glasses. trackers in clothes. biometrics in everything. the grid gets denser. the tracking gets finer. the control gets tighter. NOWHERE LEFT TO HIDE.
and we built it. bought the phones. installed the apps. drove the connected cars. enrolled in global entry. posted our locations. checked in everywhere. created the infrastructure. VOLUNTEERED OUR COORDINATES. made tracking ourselves convenient. made monitoring ourselves normal.
this document wont change anything. people will read it and shrug. say they have nothing to hide. say its the price of modern life. say convenience is worth it. and theyre right. we made convenience worth more than privacy. made tracking worth more than freedom. made CONTROL THE FOUNDATION OF GEOGRAPHY.
physical space is monitored space now. movement is data. location is evidence. coordinates are identity. WE LIVE ON A GRID AND THE GRID IS ALWAYS WATCHING. always logging. always remembering. everywhere we go. everything we do. until nowhere feels private. until movement feels exposed. until existing in space means accepting surveillance.