> They can do research, get paid, make payments, and contribute to private communities in such a way that no existing surveillance infrastructure can positively link that identity to their government identity.

I can't help but wonder if we live in the same universe. If anything, in my part of the world, I am seeing powerful surveillance tech going from the digital sphere and into the physical sphere, often on the legal/moral basis that one has no expectation of privacy in public spaces.

Would love for OP to elaborate and prove me wrong!