With the rise of modern technologies, the scope and scale of government surveillance has exploded. The use of digital communication has made communication more efficient, but also much more vulnerable. Governments, meanwhile, are increasing their capacity to exploit these vulnerabilities, and companies, their ability to thwart them. Both the PATRIOT act and the Snowden disclosures pushed the issue to the front of the national conversation. Today, the legal and policy debate—over what kind of surveillance tools are acceptable, against whom, and with with whose authorization—continues in full force.
Latest in Surveillance
The inquiry team appointed by Israel’s attorney general clears the Israeli National Police from serious allegations of engaging in warrantless online surveillance but nonetheless identifies problems with applicable laws and procedures.
A review of David Lyon, “Pandemic Surveillance” (polity, 2022).
One of the challenges with the policy debate around online child sexual abuse is that governments and law enforcement have never laid out the totality of the problem. A new paper hopes to correct that information asymmetry and engender a more informed debate.
The emerging three-factor Carpenter test should become the primary standard for Fourth Amendment searches, replacing the test that has prevailed for over 50 years.
On December 31, 2021, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts released its 2021 Wiretap Report on intercepts of wire, oral, and electronic communication from Jan. 1, 2021 to Dec. 31, 2021.
Courts are split on whether telephone pole camera surveillance of a house violates the Fourth Amendment, and the First Circuit just added to the confusion.
An EU proposal on combating child sexual abuse material online relies on technology not yet invented and, even worse, would create significant national security risks.
If Roe is overturned, criminal investigations into women’s reproductive decisions enabled by modern technologies and the sensitive, intimate data these technologies capture would constitute an unique extension of the state’s powers of observation and coercion.
Here is an explainer of the data presented in three intelligence community reports released in April regarding the continuing decline in the use of national surveillance authorities over the past two years.
This week on Chatter, Shane Harris speaks to artist Trevor Paglen, who explores themes of surveillance, security, and secrecy.