In the science fiction novel 1984, the author George Orwell describes a city years in the future where residents are under constant surveillance. The book was a huge success when it was published in 1949 because readers were fascinated by this unthinkable future where cameras were everywhere, tracking and recording your every movement.

But to us, the idea doesn’t seem that odd. Today, there are cameras all over NYC: on lamp posts, at building entrances, in hallways, and in the subway. Computer programs identify the faces in the images from all the cameras, and license plate readers track every car driving in and out of NYC. There are countless ways to track and monitor every step a person takes.  

After the 9/11 attacks, NYC decided it needed more cameras and tools to identify people who might be planning a terrorist attack, so the city installed even more cameras and built better databases and programs to identify threats. Even though the added safety measures are a good thing, they do come at a high cost to peoples' privacy.

But NYC still doesn’t come close to the city with the most cameras: Beijing, China has over 47,000 cameras throughout the city.  Do you think people have much privacy there? What is privacy, and why is it important?