Civil Liberties Concerns

Surveillance programs can impact civil liberties in many ways. It is important to weigh these costs when considering the approval of new surveillance technologies. Click on the icons to explore the various ways that surveillance can affect your fundamental rights.

Stifles Free Association

Individuals should be free to live their lives without the fear that their lawful activities, private relationships,...[LEARN MORE]

Privacy

New surveillance technologies – especially systems that allow government investigators to easily monitor our movements...[LEARN MORE]

Biased Targeting

The government sometimes uses surveillance as a tool to control individuals, groups, or social movements it considers...[LEARN MORE]

Overcollection

Too much data collection and too little oversight can add up to significant privacy violations for innocent people.[LEARN MORE]

Data Repurposing

When we voluntarily turn our private information over to others, we expect them to treat it with care – and to use it...[LEARN MORE]

Mistakes

As surveillance tools become more powerful and more pervasive, national security and law enforcement agencies...[LEARN MORE]

Disparities

Surveillance proponents often argue that mass monitoring tools allow police to discover crimes as they happen. But when...[LEARN MORE]

Profiling

Often, the government’s gaze doesn’t fall on everyone equally. Advanced surveillance technologies may be targeted...[LEARN MORE]

Harms Reputation

Pervasive surveillance can reveal parts of our lives that – for any number of legitimate reasons – we’d rather not see...[LEARN MORE]

Retailiation

Mass surveillance and data collection expose us to the danger of retaliation for actions and choices that are legal,...[LEARN MORE]

Disclosure

Even if a police department or government agency has strong privacy rules in place to protect the surveillance records...[LEARN MORE]

Sharing increases risks

The ease of data sharing increases the risk that your information will be abused.[LEARN MORE]

Data Mining

“Data mining” occurs when someone analyzes a large data set to find patterns or consolidates information about a single...[LEARN MORE]

Sense of Violation

That feeling of vulnerability – the sense that others can intrude upon or coerce your boundaries with impunity –...[LEARN MORE]

Inhibits Choices

Even if you have nothing to hide, being watched by the government can impact your behavior.[LEARN MORE]

Stifling Speech

We should be able to express our minds freely without fear that the government will monitor us, keep a permanent record...[LEARN MORE]

Insider Abuse

Covert surveillance systems are powerful tools that can be abused.[LEARN MORE]

Loss of Data Control

The Constitution places limits on the ways the government can collect and use information about you.[LEARN MORE]

Mission Creep

Police and policy-makers often justify extraordinary surveillance programs on the grounds that they prevent terrorism,...[LEARN MORE]