Doesn't take much creativity to see this is inevitable in a Patriot Act-enabled state.

The NMS has long been denied to exist in the Corporate Confederacy. However outside observers and analysts agree on how it functions:

All citizens are monitored through the following means:

-Facial recognition of video feed of CCTV cameras in public areas and of private security cameras (all private security companies are required to submit their feed to the government), identifying an individual's location, patterns of movement, and clothing.
-Citizens are also monitored from the use of transit passes or identity checkpoints, which also aides in establishing an individual's location or their patterns of movement.
-Many cities within the Corporate Confederacy have multi-story/elevated streets. In order to navigate these streets, many citizens buy GPS systems, which inform drivers which streets have the fastest traffic flow, and suggest the fastest routes possible. Unfortunately this information is cross-correlated by using a database from the government. But not too many drivers are complaining, happy to receive this "service."
-Cell phone GPS tracking.
-Purchasing patterns based upon credit card information. Citizens who make cash purchases are also monitored and identified via face recognition programs.
-Internet browsing habits, downloads, emails forum posts, etc.
-Conversation analysis by computer programs, which analyze the tone of how certain words are said, and the frequency of some words are said. The conversations monitored are typically from wiretapped telephone lines, but may also included bugged residences or offices.
-Nonintrusive load monitoring, which monitors the devices plugged into a power supply, enabling officials to determine activity within a home without planting bugs or cameras, which could enable officials to determine when it would be safe to secretly plants bugs or cameras.
-Random secret house searches, which result in the documentation of belongings and appliances.

All this data is cataloged in a database and cross-correlated with the routines or actions with other possible terrorists or former terrorists. For example redflags would be put up if a person spoke about the government in a derisive tone, repeatedly visited websites which glorify terrorists, went to meet with a suspected member of a terrorist group repeatedly, and began to purchase large quantities of gasoline and fertilizer. Another example would be that a person fingered by an informant as a terrorist leader would be monitored, and so would individuals suspected of meeting with that person.

The NMS was not the result of a concerted project, but was created over time as new tools were developed to combat terrorism and threats to public safety, and as databases were slowly consolidated. The NMS is maintained by an unknown and possibly secret government agency.

Estimated Program Development Costs: $100-275 Billion
Estimated Maintenace Costs: $40 Billion per annum (for a country with more than three and a half billion residents)