Shopping habits, travel movements and car and train journeys are being monitored increasingly as part of the fabric of daily life.

The report gives warning that funding from the War on Terror is being used to explore the opportunity of connecting data-gathering systems to track “the movements and behaviour” of millions of people.

Massive surveillance systems now underpin modern life and are set to transform the ability of the Government, law and order agencies and companies to keep a closer check on citizens.

Parents will be able to track their children’s whereabouts and, through the use of smart cards, know what meals they are eating at school.

Companies will be able to target their marketing at particular streets and communities such as “prudent pensioners” and “fledgling nurseries”, the report said.

But Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, warned that excessive surveillance was creating a climate of suspicion.

“Today I fear that we are, in fact, waking up to a surveillance society that is already all around us,” he said.

Mr Thomas said that surveillance could help to fight terrorism and crime and improve access to public services.

But he added: “As ever more information is collected, shared and used, it intrudes into our private space and leads to decisions that directly influence people’s lives. Mistakes can also easily be made with serious consequences — false matches and other cases of mistaken identity, inaccurate facts or inferences, suspicions taken as reality and breaches of security.”

David Murakami Wood, from the Surveillance Studies Network, which prepared the report, said: “Surveillance is not a malign plot hatched by evil powers to control the population.

“But the surveillance society has come about almost without us realising. With technologies that are large scale, taken for granted and often invisible, surveillance is increasingly everywhere.” ()

The report gave warning that the extent of surveillance seems to indicate a world where the citizen is not trusted.

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