25 Years of Mass Surveillance Is Enough [Auth: Cindy Cohn; Bruce Schneier]

Twenty-five years after 9/11, mass surveillance programs initially justified as counterterrorism measures have expanded far beyond national security into routine law enforcement, immigration enforcement, and private security applications. The surveillance infrastructure relies heavily on private companies collecting data for commercial purposes, which governments then access through legal processes and direct purchases from data brokers, creating an interconnected system that grows more invasive as AI technology improves. The authors argue this decades-long mass surveillance expansion based on the premise of preventing all threats has proven unnecessary and should end.