if the government (all levels) is watching everything we do

[Bennyboy]

who exactly is doing the watching? And who is paying for this huge new surveillance system? My city has cameras all over the place. Someone has to be watching them, right? The cameras at the airport, city hall, the courthouse, the jails etc are all monitored by personnel, right? Everywhere in downtown Sacramento has cameras. There must be hundreds at the airport alone. Someone has to be wathing them.

Apparently the cops are watching my car electronically and the NSA is monitoring every move I make financially, politically and otherwise.

[99th_Monkey]

1. Jay Gould, 19th Century railroad tycoon, said it best

"I can hire half the working class to enslave the other half"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12527274

[PowerToThePeople]

3. REC

This is exactly how the system works.

[djean111]

2. They are not watching in real time, for the most part, just recording.

They are scooping up everything so it can be sifted through at leisure.
This stuff is almost all after the fact - and privacy concerns aside, they are gathering data with no context.
This is not like Minority Report - unless they are already watching someone anyway, all they can do when something bad happens is to go back and search and find out the Who and the How, because they already have the What. Problem is, they don't know Why.
If someone decides you bear investigating, they can then pull up everything about you - financials, movements, emails, phone calls. Yes, they store the phone conversations digitally and there is software to listen or just search for key words. All phone conversations are packetized already.

They are gathering everything so they can use it later - blackmail, investigating crimes, etc.

[Bennyboy]

4. Who are "they" and how many of them are there?

Lots of data to sift through there even if it is after the fact.

[djean111]

9. It is all automated. Data volume not a problem. Money buys speed and storage.

And, of course, "they" is the NSA, contracted out.
This not like a million security guards staring at monitors, or the FBI huddled in a van, listening to a phone call.

[Rex]

5. Automation. The end product is what humans look at.

Don't you find it funny that they call it a 'monitor'?

[JaneyVee]

6. Most surveillance cameras record only on a loop, usually 24-48hrs.

If a crime is committed police can check the recording. Most surveillance cameras around town no one is watching.

[Trillo]

7. Artificial intelligence.

Just my speculation.

[Cleita]

8. I'm not so against cameras and monitoring in public

places. It has even proved beneficial in solving crimes and showing police brutality. If there had been a camera when George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin the results of the trial might have been different. However surveillance of my private life is a different matter. Listening to my conversations in private or on the telephone, reading my mail, having cameras in my home without my knowledge or other intrusions on my privacy like sweeping the contents of my computer and where I go on the Internet is a violation of the right to privacy guaranteed in the Constitution. So we need our legislators to define when the line has been crossed into a police/surveillance state and is therefore unlawful.

[MineralMan]

10. Nobody is watching in real time. Only if there is a reason to

see what has already happened are those things examined, and they are examined only for what is wanted. It's all just recorded, in case someone needs to see it later. That's why you see video footage after some crime or another. It often helps capture someone. Very often, in fact. Just this week in my area, there have been videos that caught a crime in progress. Shown on the TV news, someone who knew the people called the police and identified them almost immediately.

Very valuable evidence, but only useful after the fact.