Surveillance is everywhere, from your doorbell to your cellphone, from the government-run to the privately operated. Somewhere, much of the time, cameras are silently watching.
And joining that covert surveillance is that taken from your car, with wide angle dashboard cameras - dashcams - proliferating in their thousands across the traffic flow.
The after market has had to move quickly on cashing in on the dashcam phenomenon because there's a limited window of commercial opportunity available to them.
That's because the original equipment manufacturers - the car makers - are racing ahead with built-in camera technology and integrated software which can perform all sorts of tasks, from backing your car into a parking space to plotting the best path on a rock-strewn 4WD track.
The advantage in going into the after market is that there are compact dashcams which will suit almost any budget and requirement, including those that watch inside the cabin - ideal for ride share drivers - as well as out the rear window, to the side and ahead of the car. They can also record audio, and warn of speed limits.
There are those with a park mode, motion triggered when stationary and hit by another car and most, like the compact Garmin models - some of the best sellers around - show what the camera reveals for a few seconds (so you can check it's correctly aimed), then power the screen down to save battery life but still keep recording.
There's a common misconception that your friendly car insurer will reward you handsomely with a discount on your premium by running a dashcam. Sadly, most won't.
The giant Insurance Australia Group, which includes the brands of NRMA and CGU, described dashcam vision as "helpful" in settling a disputed claim but fall short of rewarding customers who run one. It seems that the capability of generating time-stamped proof-of-innocence vision in a prang is not sufficient a deterrent to put money back in your account.
Luke Gallagher, IAG's executive general manager of direct claims said that "in the unfortunate event a customer is involved in an accident, dashboard camera footage can assist us in the claims process by helping to determine who is at fault".
"We find the most common claim disputes are in relation to collisions that happen at intersections, while changing lanes, when traffic lights are changing colour, reversing or when a parked car is hit by an unknown third party," he said.
"We encourage our customers to submit relevant footage of an incident so it can be considered as part of a claim."
The Insurance Council of Australia said most insurers won't factor in the use of a dashcam in pricing a policy "because it does not actually reduce the risk of something unexpected happening that could lead to a claim".
The algorithms used to calculate a vehicle premium based on factors like driver age, address, insurance history, vehicle age and driving record don't recognise sufficient asset value in a dashcam.
But the police certainly do.
Since it has been around, CCTV has always been a major benefit for policing and now having members of the public roaming the streets and collecting random vision of wrongdoers via their dashcams is seen as a an even bigger asset.
Vehicles are seen as one of the single most significant enablers of crime and if a member of the public with a dashcam happened to be in an area of interest at a specific time, there's a reasonable chance that the all-seeing eye of the camera caught something of interest.
Integrated GPS and time marking is close to universal across all dashcams - even the cheapest - with the only limitations being the quality of the camera lens, the size of the storage card, and the definition of the recording.
ACT Acting Superintendent Detective Emily McCallum said that cameras are invaluable as "impartial" observers, untainted by personal bias or memory lapses. ACT police have been requesting dashcam footage since around 2016 and the "frequency of these requests has increased as the number of cars equipped with cameras has increased".
But those who provide vision to police which leads to an arrest, they should also be aware that they may have to turn up to court, if only to verify the vision is bona fide, and where, when, and how it was collected.
Vision of drivers doing dangerous or stupid things on the road is often posted up to social media. Anyone who uploads to these sites should be aware that their vision could end up anywhere online, including in the hands of police - as has been the case with those who take vision of their mates doing burnouts in front of them.
The multiple websites which invite dashcam uploads of incidents, thereby generating traffic to that website, are also generally accomplished at commercialising that vision, while those who supply it don't make a red cent.
"People providing any dashcam footage or video of another car they must realise it's not the car committing the offence, it is the driver," Detective McCallum said.
"To help police identify the driver, any additional information such as the date, time, location, and direction of travel, should be supplied to police along with the footage."
Police fall short of endorsing dashcams but admit the devices can make their job easier.
"Police encourage anything that will improve driver safety. In-car cameras can make drivers more aware of their own behaviour," she said.
"Dashcams can help provide a clearer version of the events in the lead-up to, and during a collision, 'road-rage' and other incidents."
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