A fast-growing network of private cameras and data centers is making Americans easier to track and, at the same time, less able to take care of themselves — bad news for anyone who values privacy or independence.

• License-plate cameras from Flock have gone from one neighborhood test to an estimated 120,000 across the country in nine years, now used to hunt code violations in poor neighborhoods.
• Local officials are pushing through data centers and steep property tax hikes over loud public objection — one Utah county saw taxes jump 500%.
• Depending on the grid, the grocery store, and the hospital leaves people helpless when any one link breaks, as Katrina and Covid showed.
• AI speeds all of this up and makes people mentally lazy, which is exactly what makes a country easy to exploit.
• Vandalism of cameras is already spreading — 107 reported incidents this year — and looks like the start of a broader revolt against the machines rather than against other people.

Outlook: Expect more local fights over data centers, taxes, and cameras, with legal pushback losing ground as the technology scales faster than the rules governing it.