[BurningFrog]

There were mobile phones decades before any of this existed.

[krageon]

And to the extent that this was practical, they have always been used for surveillance.

[BurningFrog]

Maybe I'm splitting hairs, but that's definitely not their primary purpose, which is what I think OP was saying.

Sure, once they exist, there are secondary effects who are important in themselves.

[api]

Yeah I guess people carrying around transmitters is too easy to exploit for surveillance and it's just irresistible.