>>509719199checked
i think you can visualize it as concentric circles, or maybe tiers. like those "s-tier, a-tier, b-tier" charts.
everyone, especially post-9/11, is getting spied on. a lot of this is probably done automatically through data collection systems and social media, tied to IP addresses, phone numbers, profiles, email account Oauth logins, etc etc.
(this is where they categorize people according to "revealed preferences" and demographics, and can nudge their behavior in different ways based on algorithms trained on past behavior to sell stuff, make them think/vote a certain way, etc)
but i think you can basically get promoted up to higher levels of surveillance if you do stuff to get noticed, like maybe post on certain websites, or post certain key words, or do stuff IRL like get involved in politics or interact with other people that have been flagged, or get arrested, etc.
(I assume most of this is largely invisible but interacts with your life in different ways- applying for jobs or loans, etc)
I assume that at a certain "threat level" the surveillance becomes more intensive and might cross over more often into IRL world instead of just internet world. i assume this involves lots of different types of surveillance and harassment.
then again, in reading the literature on gangstalking and TIs, a lot of it seems like victims are chosen at random, or nearly random. who knows. i guess that's the point- it's opaque, unaccountable, and largely unknown- as well as plausibly deniable.
i've been reading a lot about East Germany and their stasi secret police recently. fascinating topic. by the fall of the berlin wall, something like 1 in 6 citizens were an informer for the Stasi, with even more unofficial collaborators/informers, and they had files on literally everybody.
in the US, over 1 million people work in the private security field, another million or so work in law enforcement, and 1.5 million have a security clearance.
it makes you wonder.