Ever feel like "Big Brother is watching you"? Well, if you live in one of the top 10 surveillance cities in the world (revealed in gallery above), then you might be justified.
With planet Earth closing in on one billion surveillance cameras globally, CCTV density in the 130 most populous cities has been assessed by data firm Surfshark.
It will come as little surprise that China and India dominate the list; it may be more surprising that London is the only non-Asian city to appear in the top 10 with 399 CCTV cameras per square kilometre and 67.5 per 1,000 people.
The latter metric is particularly high - number one-placed Chennai (657 cameras per square kilometre) has a mere 25.5 cameras per 1,000 people.
Given the cities' roughly equivalent populations (London 9,304,016 and Chennai 10,971,108, according to World Urbanisation projects data) this can't be dismissed as a statistical quirk.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the UK as "freedom loving" in September, so the fact its capital has more CCTV cameras relative to area and population than Beijing will have Nineteen Eighty-Four author George Orwell spinning in his grave.
Why Chinese and Indian cities feature so heavily
Neither China nor India are renowned for their libertarian dispositions, meaning cherishing personal freedom isn't at the forefront of either political mindset.
Data show that there appears to be no correlation between CCTV density and crime rates
China's drive is more technologically motivated, however, with facial recognition systems integral to its proposed social points system. The Chinese database contains 1.3 billion pictures that can be matched to a face on a CCTV camera almost instantaneously.
India's motivation can be ascribed to a desire less for state control and more to combat the paradigm of mass urbanisation, rising crime and lack of resources.
Its burgeoning middle class is also wedded to the concept of surveillance as a form of protection, although statistics indicate this is misguided.
Data suggest no correlation between CCTV density and crime rate. The Chinese city of Taiyuan is the prime example with 120 cameras for every 1,000 people, yet with one of the highest rates of crime in the 130 countries ranked.
New York conspicuous by its absence from top 10
The United States is the self-styled "land of the free" – and when it comes to CCTV cameras, it appears to live up to the mantra.
The 54th-placed Big Apple has a paltry 26 cameras per square kilometre which works out at just 3.78 per 1,000 people. Los Angeles comes in at 63 in the rankings with 17.42 cameras per square kilometre – although this equates to slightly more cameras per 1,000 people than New York at 5.65.
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Ain Issa camp:
- Established in 2016
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- Of the adult population, 49 per cent men, 51 per cent women (not including foreigners annexe)
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- One of the nine official (UN recognised) camps in the region
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MATCH INFO
Jersey 147 (20 overs)
UAE 112 (19.2 overs)
Jersey win by 35 runs
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Transmission: 9-speed auto
Price: from Dh498,542
On sale: now
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What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
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Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
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4,872 matches
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The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
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Homeowners and tenants are allowed to list their properties for rental by registering through the Dubai Tourism website to obtain a permit.
Tenants also require a letter of no objection from their landlord before being allowed to list the property.
There is a cost of Dh1,590 before starting the process, with an additional licence fee of Dh300 per bedroom being rented in your home for the duration of the rental, which ranges from three months to a year.
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