GoKawiilEFF Op-Ed: Two Decades of Post-9/11 Mass Surveillance Has Outgrown Its Justification
An EFF essay co-authored with Cindy Cohn argues that surveillance tools built after Sept. 11 for counterterrorism have expanded far beyond that purpose, now used routinely by agencies like ICE and local police, and increasingly fused with private systems such as facial recognition and license-plate readers. It highlights that most of this data actually originates with private companies, including data brokers, which sell information to agencies like the FBI.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The piece underscores how the line between corporate data collection and government surveillance has essentially dissolved, letting agencies sidestep warrants by simply buying data. This raises long-term concerns about civil liberties, protest rights, and immigration enforcement as surveillance infrastructure originally justified by national security threats becomes a general-purpose policing tool.
- Post-9/11 mass surveillance tools are now used broadly by ICE and local law enforcement, not just for counterterrorism.
- Private companies' data collection for advertising and business purposes feeds directly into government surveillance pipelines.
- FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed the agency purchases Americans' data from brokers and plans to continue doing so.
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Published there as: “25 Years of Mass Surveillance Is Enough”
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