Why are wealthy people buying offline equipment

Our Take

The creator behind Digital ID, Mass Surveillance and Digital Currency raises a question that cuts right to the heart of what we cover here: if the people with the most resources and influence are actively opting out of digital tracking — paying cash, avoiding smart devices, buying 'offline' gear — what does that tell the rest of us about the systems we're all being pushed into? It's a fair observation, and one worth sitting with even if you don't follow every thread the channel pulls on.

We can't verify the specifics in this video, and we're not going to pretend we did the reporting. But the broader pattern rings true to what we see every day with ALPR networks like Flock Safety: surveillance infrastructure tends to be sold as something for 'everyone's safety,' yet it's rarely the wealthy or well-connected who end up catalogued, cross-referenced, and data-brokered. License plate readers quietly log your location, your routines, your associations — and that data doesn't stay local. It gets shared, sold, subpoenaed, and sometimes leaked.

If a video like this makes you wonder who actually benefits from a 'connected' world and who gets left holding the privacy bag, that's a healthy instinct. Channel it into something concrete: check our camera map to see what's tracking you in your own neighborhood, and visit take action for ways to push back on unaccountable surveillance before opting out becomes a luxury only the wealthy can afford.