HONG KONG (AP) — The now-banned masks Hong Kong protesters use to conceal their identities are a consequence of living in the shadow of Big Brother.

Across the border that separates Hong Kong from the rest of China, high-tech surveillance is ubiquitous, with facial recognition, forests of cameras, and other privacy-penetrating tools.

Becoming a tightly controlled city like all the others in China, its special freedoms extinguished, is the future that protesters say they're fighting to avoid for Hong Kong.

Many of them have turned to using code words when messaging each about when and where they'll next meet. Instead of "protest," they'll write "shopping" or "dreaming" to disguise their intentions.