Mass surveillance industry

According to data provided by The Wall Street Journal, the retail market for surveillance tools has grown from "nearly zero" in 2001 to about US$5 billion in 2011.

[2][needs update] Fueled by widespread fears of terrorist attacks, the future of surveillance is particularly promising in the field of video content analysis, where computers analyze live camera feeds to count the number of people, register temperature changes, and automatically identify suspicious behavior via statistical algorithms.

[2] The following terrorist attacks have led to a significant increase in street-level surveillance: Private intelligence agencies are non-governmental corporations involved in the collection and analysis of information.

[4] An examination by The Post found that 1,931 private companies work on programs related to intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.

It offers information to governments and private clients including Dow Chemical Company, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, and the U.S. Marine Corps.