It doesn’t make Comparitech’s list, but the Big Apple is clearly another one of the most surveilled American cities, because duh. Before a few weeks ago, New York was already a dystopian mess held together by an army of cops, a broad network of municipal security cameras (at least 15,000, according to reports), and a weirdly unaccountable private surveillance fund. Now, in an effort to curb spiking crime rates, the city has decided to turn its subway system into a giant spying apparatus: in September, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration announced it would be installing security cameras in every single train car in the city. She said of the cameras, “You think Big Brother is watching you on the subway? You’re absolutely right. That is our intent.” Nice!
At the same time, the rollout of OMNY, the city’s new all-digital contactless fare system, means that passengers will be ditching their metro cards for a shiny new privacy hazard. The company running that system—a defense contractor called Cubic Transportation Systems—is known for selling surveillance tech and military hardware to foreign governments…so that’s cool.