That defeatist attitude is what they want us to believe. Those doing the surveillance want to do it easily. If thinking that resistance is futile means you don't bother doing anything, then you are an easier item to monetize.
The reality is that we live in an age of amazing privacy tools. I can talk to someone on the other side of the planet totally anonymously. That wasn't possible until just over a decade ago (Tor). I can encrypt my data in a way that all the computers of the world working for billions of years could not decrypt (strong encryption). People used to put their lives on the line, risk being killed, to move such communications across boarders. And these tools are open source, under regular and public examination internationally. Adblockers and lower-level in-browser privacy tricks are also commonplace. So too companies dedicated to online privacy (VPN providers). They used to be illegal. Privacy-focused Linux distros abound. There might be more people looking at us, but this is a golden age for privacy if you care enough to actually try.
Those IR-emitting glasses really do work against 99% of cameras (the ones without mechanical irises). They are a powerful tool. What you will quickly learn is which places are really being watched, rather than simply recorded. You won't get 20 feet into a casino with them.
The other privacy tools that you mention are all online. And, I argue, that's the only option now for anonymity.
I mean, how do you get around DNA testing?
from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/12/science/chimera-bone-marr...:
"A recent article about a highly unconventional experiment involving a man who had received a bone marrow transplant has raised some questions for readers of The New York Times.
Four years after the lifesaving procedure, all the DNA in the patient’s semen had been replaced by that of his donor. This came as a surprise to forensic scientists at the Washoe County Sheriff’s Department in Reno, Nev., studying the case."
Not really arguing this is practical for anonymoisation - it's more an interesting fact.
If you don't want to have to wear facepoint and glasses made of special materials, and clothes with specially designed patches, then write to your local politician to push for regulation of public surveillance.
Perhaps, but it can be easily lost by via technical means.
Anonymity in meatspace is arguably a dead issue.
Whenever I leave the house, I assume that I'm under surveillance. So I just act normal.
Edit: In particular, I play "harmless old man".
But anyway, the thing is that I do know that I'm under surveillance at least some of the time. So I might as well assume that it's all of the time. Because it's hard to know.
And sadly enough, I won't even speak freely with my wife, unless she's turned off her cellphone, or put it in the utility closet or bathroom, with the water running.
So let them. actually I am still hoping for the day at least the US puts me on a no entry list. I would see this as a badge of honor.
I wouldn't do that now.
I neglected to say that I was doing that with the expectation of ~anonymity. Using those gift cards to lease VPN services and VPS. Mailing cash to people selling Liberty Reserve and Pecunix. And later, Bitcoin.
That going through such steps migh assure some privacy?
Or that you'd take such measures as a matter of routine?
Or that you could do that without raising suspicions, or possibly being flagged / recorded in some manner despite (or on account of) the precautions?
Or ... ?
(Moral is not clear.)
So yes, I'm no longer comfortable assuming that such steps would guarantee any privacy. And yes, I'd also worry that at least parts of the process would be recorded. And the harder I tried to obfuscate, the more likely it'd raise suspicions.
I do worry about using a VPN. But that's not too uncommon where I live, so hopefully it's not a huge flag.
Cardinal Richelieu: "Ah. And so, how do you act when you're not being watched?" [0]
[0] https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/cardinal_richelieu_183310
...until surveillance capitalism hurts democracy enough that people start rioting.
Absent opposition there's no particular pressure on it that would result in collapse. Sure, the inherent contradictions would lead to malaise, economic recession, and depression, but those are fairly normal parts of the political cycle that are easily spun and can always be blamed on a politically impotent minority or stock antagonist.
Eventually, the internal contradictions make it unsustainable. Before that point, resistance is essentially futile, and the regular dysfunction cycles can be swept under the rug, and resisters imprisoned or deleted.
At the point where it becomes unsustainable, resistance becomes successful.
Of course, resistance needs to be maintained through the futile years/decades/centuries, and at massive cost, so that it is there at the point when it is needed.
Once on the watch list, it is likely that any attempt to evade surveillance will be used to justify more invasive surveillance.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/solitary-confin...