I went looking for surveillance cameras in my neighbourhood: I found so many more than I thought

In the trade-off between privacy and security, it helps to know the extent of your local surveillance infrastructure. There are now easy ways to find out.

I didn't tell anyone I was meeting Michelle Dahl, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a watchdog group. But by the time I greet her in Brooklyn, New York, the system knows we're together.

"It's kind of invisible if you're not looking for it," says Dahl, pointing up to a lamppost, where two tiny cameras labelled New York City Police Department hide in black plastic domes.

They're part of the NYPD's massive AI surveillance platform: the Domain Awareness System (DAS). "Every police officer in the city can access it on their phones and pull up a profile of basically anyone walking around," she says.

The platform connects more than 80,000 cameras with drones, social media data, even systems that follow cars when you drive to another state. Dahl says it can unveil who I've seen and everywhere I've been in the last week. My whole life: tracked.

Every day, across the US, your life is also being recorded by a growing system of mass surveillance that reaches far deeper than many of us may realise. Controversy around an American surveillance company called Flock Safety exploded in recent months, but it's only one player in a giant industry.

Flock and other advocates say we need to strike a compromise between privacy and safety. 

Is it worth the trade-off? To decide for yourself, it's worth understanding how comprehensive the surveillance really is. So I went looking for cameras in my own neighbourhood. You can too, and you don't even need to leave the couch to find them.

'The more you start looking, the more you'll see'

Some of those concerned about surveillance seem to think Flock is the whole issue. New York City demonstrates why that's not true. The company doesn't operate here, but we're still being watched.

Dahl is taking me on a surveillance tour to the BBC's Manhattan office, pointing out cameras and other devices along the way. I've covered privacy for 10 years, but even I was stunned by the infrastructure following our every move.

After just a few steps, we stop and look around. I count 16 different cameras.

"I would assume these are owned by businesses, buildings and renters," she says. These are additional to cameras run by the city," she says. "But the NYPD likely has easy access. They often just ask the owner if there's an investigation, and people hand over the footage." 

Some camera vendors, like Amazon's Ring, even have automated systems to make it easier for police to request and receive footage directly from users.

Cameras in public are now so ubiquitous I barely notice them anymore. But with Dahl's help, my eyes refocus: small pill-shaped cameras hanging in front of stores, ageing grey devices on the corners of buildings, advanced dual-camera systems run by the city that pan, tilt and zoom to laser in on people of interest.

I try to count as we walk, but there are so many it's impossible to keep track and hold up a conversation.........

© BBC