The local police have a pretty comprehensive surveillance capability. So don’t think that, if you’re crazy enough to retire to this economically troubled mini-state--still with large and now cheap villas (and even cheaper Asian labor)--you will have real privacy of any sort. Privacy in Dubai is reserved for Hamas and the vast network of Iranian arms traders, money launderers, and more ordinary gangsters.
When the Dubai cops really want to, they can find out what they want—as you’ve seen with the otherwise highly successful Mossad operation. But the massive arrival of Mossadniks reveals that this is, even at best, an after-the-fact Arab police operation.