I am being watched. I am under surveillance. So are you. There are eyes on us, or maybe it's just one eye. Singular or plural, it is/they are ubiquitous, all-seeing. It/they never sleep(s). So much the better, for at least two reasons: 1) We are better protected, and 2) we are better informed.

In March the regional Chunichi Shimbun published a report that The Japan Times ran under the headline "Highway operator taps big data to gauge toilet usage." It begins, "A recent analysis of big data by Central Nippon Expressway Co. (NEXCO Central) has revealed that more and more men tend to prefer cubicles over urinals in restrooms."

Reading on, we learn that NEXCO "installed about 3,000 sensors, including motion detectors for toilet bowls, in 51 locations out of 9,300 toilets it manages at 200 locations" along the Shin-Tomei Expressway in Shizuoka Prefecture. Thanks to the sensors, NEXCO now knows — and thanks to the Chunichi Shimbun, we know too — that 1) between May 2012 and April 2013 cubicle use over urinal use rose from 16 to 18 percent, and 2) the average visit to a cubicle in fiscal 2014 lasted four minutes and four seconds, up 35 seconds in seven years. This is probably owing, NEXCO figures, to the increasing use of smartphones in restrooms.