of data, and tracking travel within as well as to and from a country. Financial tracking: A state's ability to record and search financial transactions: checks, credit cards, wires, etc. Gag orders: Restrictions on and criminal penalties for the disclosure of the existence of state surveillance programs. Anti-crypto laws: Outlawing or restricting cryptography and/or privacy enhancing technologies. Lack of constitutional protections: A lack of constitutional privacy protections or the routine overriding of such protections. Data storage: The ability of the state to store the data gathered. Data search: The ability to organize and search the data gathered. Data retention requirements: Laws that require Internet and other service providers to save detailed records of their customers' Internet usage for a minimum period of time. Telephone data retention requirements: Laws that require telephone companies to record and save records of their customers' telephone usage. Cell phone data retention requirements: Laws that require cellular telephone companies to record and save records of their customers' usage and location. Medical records: Government access to the records of medical service providers. Enforcement: The state's ability to use force to seize anyone they want, whenever they want. Lack of habeas corpus: Lack of a right for a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court in a timely fashion or the overriding of such rights. Lack of a police-intel barrier: The lack of a barrier between police organizations and intelligence organizations, or the overriding of such barriers. Covert hacking: State operatives collecting, removing, or adding digital evidence to/from private computers without permission or the knowledge of the computers' owners. Loose or no warrants: Arrests or searches made without warrants or without careful examination and review of police statements and justifications by a truly independent judge or other third-party. The list includes factors that apply to other forms of police states, such as the use of identity documents and police enforcement, but go considerably beyond them and emphasize the use of technology to gather and process the information collected. In popular culture The concept of being monitored by our governments collects a large audience of curious citizens. Mass surveillance has been prominently featured in a wide array of books, films, and other media. Advances in technology over the last century have led to possible social control through the Internet and the conditions of late capitalism. Many directors and writers have been enthralled with the