Dubai has one of the most sophisticated surveillance states in the world. It is incredibly difficult to bypass Dubai intelligence, which Dubai promotes as a positive aspect of its government. The Arab Spring of 2011 gave way to multiple riots and protests across the Middle East which is why monitoring and security have become especially tight within the past decade. Social media and smartphones played a pivotal role in the uprising of the public across the Islamic world which is why Dubai has stepped up its surveillance measures. Dubai’s surveillance system is an ecosystem entitled “Falcon Eye”, a nod to the importance of falconry within Arab culture, a sophisticated network with software which tracks the movement of a person from the moment they leave their home until the moment they return. Camera surveillance is not the only method used however as the Dubai government has openly admitted to the tracking and monitoring of smartphones as well as to sending state agents to follow individuals like journalists via motorized vehicle and upon foot when a person is deemed to possibly cause a threat to the states national security. The reason this activity is not hidden from the public is because the Dubai government wants citizens and foreigners to know that they actively engage in the monitoring of what people do when within its borders. Dubai started spending millions of dollars in 2011 on state of the art Israeli spyware which had the ability to infect smartphones and turn them into portable surveillance devices as they are almost always with the person who is being spied upon. In the past decade, as of 2019, the United Arab Emirates has made strides in opening up communication and relationships with law enforcement and governments located near the Indian Ocean. This allows the reach of the Dubai government to effectively be international, much the same way that the U.S. has international diplomatic links with many other democracies around the world