Überveillance, the web of things, and people: What is the culmination of all this surveillance?

It is argued that historically, telecommunications companies have measured voice and data traffic for reasons related to service dimensioning and engineering management. Today, personalized devices make it possible to understand not only the requirements for the capacity needed in a network but also household and individual usage patterns. This has changed the way that companies now market their products and services and sell directly to individuals. Beyond marketing is the intimate knowledge gathered of why people do things, inferred by pattern-of-life data and metadata. This is the precise knowledge of customer behaviors, traits, habits, and characteristics. The Internet of Things (IoT) promises even greater connectedness as individual items begin to come alive on a global network, each with its respective IP address. Big data will soon be able to reveal patterns and trends that were previously incalculable. We will seek even greater levels of scrutiny in the not-toodistant future, heralding in an age of überveillance. We now know much more about consumers than traditional call holding times and the location of an individual user in a mobile network. Using evidence-based approaches, we can know what consumers are thinking, how they are feeling, and even what they will do next with a high degree of accuracy. Embedded surveillance devices will likely replace clunky mobile and wearable handsets and headsets, which will introduce an ability to transcend physical boundaries. [This article was presented as a keynote address by M.G. Michael at the 2014 International Conference on Contemporary Computing and Informatics (http://www.ic3i.org).]