US citizen here. I recently returned from my first international travel in a few years, and I was unpleasantly surprised by how easy it was to get back into the country.
In the returning citizens line, everyone was directed by an officer to one of three tablets each on a stand about 3-4 feet high. You stuck your face in the right spot for the camera and the tablet turned green. And that was it, free to go. No conversation with a human about where you went, no human verifying your passport, no need for the passport at all. Just a face scan (presumably matching a database of digitized passport photos) and you’re done.
Makes me wonder what the bar is for various local law enforcement or different federal agencies to get access to the database and hook in with surveillance cameras.
I completely agree that everyone is being recorded almost all the time in public, but your post reminded me of the last time I signed up for insurance. They gave me a device and said just keep it in my trunk for a slight discount. I knew it was obviously a gps tracker and told the sales lady they would have to pay me like minimum $100 a month to drive around with that thing. People give away their personal driving info for a couple of cents off on their insurance.