25 Years of Mass Surveillance Is Enough
This essay was written with Cindy Cohn, and originally appeared in Lawfare . One of the many legacies of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 is the government-wide shift from targeted surveillance—such as individual wiretaps or pen register/trap and trace orders—to mass surveillance techniques—such as tapping into the internet backbone or mass collection of telephone or internet metadata. The legal…
The world of mass surveillance has evolved significantly since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Originally, the government's focus was on targeted surveillance, such as individual wiretaps or pen register/trap and trace orders. However, the 9/11 attacks led to a significant shift towards mass surveillance techniques, including tapping into the internet backbone and collecting telephone or internet metadata.
This legal and technical architecture has grown far beyond its initial justification and is now used by various entities, including law enforcement and private security systems.
Mass surveillance is no longer limited to government agencies; it has become a routine tool for law enforcement, immigration agencies, and even private companies. Companies like Google and Facebook collect data on users' behavior, while local sheriffs and ICE agents rely on cellphone location data and privately managed automatic license plate readers. The interrelation between private and governmental mass surveillance is worth examining, as governments primarily obtain surveillance information through private companies.
The increased use of AI technologies has further improved the technology for mass surveillance and analysis, raising concerns about the associated problems. After 9/11, the government's belief that it could surveil the population to ensure safety became widespread. This shift from targeted to mass surveillance was fueled by fear, with the government claiming that if it could "Collect it All," "Process it All," "Exploit it All," "Partner it All," and "Sniff it All," it would ultimately "Know it All."
Despite government assurances of the benefits of mass surveillance, there has never been a comprehensive analysis of the costs and benefits, either in terms of taxpayer dollars or diversion of resources from other efforts. The program's success has often been based on limited examples that fall apart under scrutiny. Additionally, there has been no analysis of whether domestic immigration or law enforcement use of these techniques actually makes people safer or whether alternative techniques could produce the same results.
As we approach the 25-year mark since 9/11, it is essential to evaluate the costs of this shift to mass surveillance, particularly in terms of Americans' rights and freedoms. The government's decision to collect Americans' telephone records immediately after 9/11 marked the beginning of a significant shift towards mass surveillance.
While the program was initially justified under executive power, it later shifted to a novel interpretation of Section 215 of the Patriot Act. In 2015, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals rejected this interpretation, and Congress passed the USA Freedom Act, which still allows collection of a tremendous amount of domestic telephone records but ended the indiscriminate mass collection that had occurred for nearly fourteen years.
Written by urgent.news from Schneier on Security's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
