The opportunities offered by digital technology are enormous. The global social and economic system is being reconfigured at an incredible rate. Connectivity is increasingly reshaping our world and redefining the way we interact with our environment. The rise of digital technologies is transforming almost every aspect of modern life. More and more of our interactions are mediated by machines. Along with the rapid evolution comes the risks, threats, and vulnerabilities in the system for those who plan to exploit it. In this chapter, firstly, the authors explore the role of 5G, big data, the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous vehicles (AV), and cloud computing play in the context of smart societies; secondly, they analyse how the synergy between these technologies will be used by governments and other stakeholders around the world to improve the safety of citizens albeit increasingly relinquishing privacy rights and encouraging mass surveillance at the expense of liberty.