Surveillance Technology: Watching People Everywhere
Updated: Sept. 11, 2024
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Photo Credit: Nir Elias/Reuters
INTRODUCTION
Published at the dawn of the Cold War, George Orwell’s 1984 offered a stark warning about the dire personal and societal impacts of mass surveillance. Orwell’s words proved prescient, as many of his dystopian predictions would begin to take shape in the ensuing decades. Governments and corporations have amassed unprecedented and largely unchecked information-gathering power, making true privacy an increasingly aspirational endeavor. Both authoritarian and democratic regimes have weaponized cutting-edge software to spy and suppress. Today, a software named Pegasus is many despots’ tool of choice. Developed by an Israeli firm for the stated purpose of combating crime, Pegasus can covertly breach a target’s device and track their calls, texts, and location. Less advanced malware requires an unassuming victim to open a virus-laden link or email to gain access; Pegasus’s ‘zero-click’ exploit bypasses this requirement completely. Governments have wasted no time abusing this power, spying on reporters, officials, and activists. Revelations about Pegasus have revived conversations about the dire and unexplored free speech consequences of this trend.
Case Study—Pegasus
Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit Says, The New York Times, December 2, 2018
Lawsuits claim Israeli spyware firm helped UAE regime hack opponents’ phones, The Times of Israel, August 31, 2018
Private Israeli spyware used to hack cellphones of journalists, activists worldwide, The Washington Post, July 18, 2021
Response from NSO Group to the Pegasus Project, The Washington Post, July 18, 2021
What is Pegasus spyware and how does it hack phones?, The Guardian, July 18, 2021
FT editor among 180 journalists identified by clients of spyware firm, The Guardian, July 20, 2021
A Tech Firm Has Blocked Some Governments From Using Its Spyware Over Misuse Claims, NPR, July 29, 2021
The Battle for the World’s Most Powerful Cyberweapon, The New York Times, Jan. 28, 2022
How Democracies Spy on Their Citizens, The New Yorker, April 18, 2022
Court orders maker of Pegasus spyware to hand over code to WhatsApp, The Guardian, February 29, 2024
Exiled, then spied on: Civil society in Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland targeted with Pegasus spyware, AccessNow, May 30, 2024
Related Incidents from the Tracker
ACLU wins suit against Memphis to halt surveillance of activists – November 2018
Internal documents reveal Los Angeles police requested home surveillance footage of Black Lives Matter protests – March 2021
Documents reveal LAPD tracks individuals’ social media handles, email accounts – November 2021
Release of proposed Apple surveillance software to fight child sexual abuse delayed after nationwide privacy protests – November 2021
US Court of Appeals dismisses Wikimedia lawsuit against National Security Agency, on grounds of ‘state secrets’ privilege – January 2022
Reports reveal Minneapolis police surveilled activists covertly and with racial bias – August 2022
Supreme Court denies ACLU’s request to consider whether secret surveillance court decisions should be open to public scrutiny – November 2022
Investigation shows campus police across the country used surveillance program to monitor student protests – December 2022
Madison Square Garden’s use of facial recognition technology to bar certain lawyers stirs protests – July 2023
Knight Institute expresses concern over tracking speech on college campuses amid Israel-Hamas Conflict – January 2024
A Brief History of Surveillance
Theoretical Foundations
Skim this summary of the intellectual origins and ethics of surveillance by Kevin Macnish, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
History of American Mass Surveillance
America’s ‘Big Brother’: A Century of U.S. Domestic Surveillance, David Hadley, Ohio State University—Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective
A Brief History of Surveillance in America, April White, Smithsonian Magazine, April 2018
If you’re interested in a more comprehensive history of surveillance in the U.S., check out Brian Hochman’s book The Listeners or read an excerpt here
Contemporary Crises
‘Panic made us vulnerable’: how 9/11 made the US surveillance state—and the Americans who fought back, Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, Sep. 4, 2021
Skim Title II of the Patriot Act
Read through the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s timeline of NSA spying and its dictionary on surveillance jargon
You Are Now Remotely Controlled, Shoshana Zuboff, The New York Times, Jan. 24, 2020
F.B.I violated surveillance program rules after George Floyd protests and Jan. 6 attack, Charlie Savage, The New York Times, May 19, 2023
Artificial Intelligence: The New Eyes of Surveillance, Matthias Pfau, Forbes, Feb. 2, 2024
Surveillance looms over pro-Palestinian campus protests, Sam Sabin, Axios, May 5, 2024
Point / Counterpoint
Global spyware such as Pegasus is a threat to democracy. Here’s how to stop it. David Kaye & Marietje Schaake, The Washington Post, July 19, 2021
Police Social Media Monitoring Chills Activism, Gabriella Sanchez & Rachel Levinson-Waldman, Brennan Center, Nov. 18, 2022
Mass Surveillance Chills Online Speech Even When People Have ‘Nothing to Hide’ Elizabeth Stoycheff, Slate, May 3, 2016
The Conforming Effect: First Amendment Implications of Surveillance, Beyond Chilling Speech University of Richmond Law Review, Jan. 17, 2015
Edward Snowden on Surveillance and Free Speech Watch parts, if not all, of this discussion from Oct. 29, 2019
What’s the Evidence Mass Surveillance Works? Not Much Lauren Kirchner, ProPublica, Nov. 18, 2015
Remarks by the President on Review of Signals Intelligence Barack Obama, Department of Justice, Jan. 17, 2014
[Skim] Hearing of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on How Disclosed NSA Programs Protect Americans, and Why Disclosure Aids Our Adversaries House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, June 18, 2013
Keep Artificial Intelligence out of Government Surveillance, Rand Paul, National Review, May 24, 2023
Government Surveillance Keeps Us Safe, Matthew Waxman and Adam Klein, The New York Times, April 21, 2024
US Surveillance of Americans Must Stop, Elizabeth Goitein, Brennan Center for Justice, May 20, 2022
Discussion Questions
- When is surveillance justified, if at all? What differentiates ethical monitoring from abusive espionage?
- To what extent does an ideal balance between privacy and security exist? Is this trade-off a false one?
- What should be done to regulate government surveillance? What protections should be afforded to civilians? Are such protections futile?
- Governments aren’t the only powerful institutions that engage in mass surveillance. Private tech behemoths harvest and commercialize troves of consumer data—a practice so widespread and systematized that experts dub it “surveillance capitalism.” How do government and corporate surveillance differ? Do they pose similar threats? Do they warrant similar solutions?
- In what ways may recent innovations in artificial intelligence impact surveillance, especially relating to guarantees of privacy, Free Speech, and press freedom?
Activity
Click on these themes below: National Security + Social Media + Legal Action
Discuss: What does this confluence of stories with these filters tell us about Free Speech issues surrounding surveillance, national security, and privacy?
Tracker Entries
This course module was prepared by Jaime Moore-Carrillo, who joined the Free Speech Project in 2019 and served as principal research assistant for two years. The Boston native now works as a reporter.