Paranoids in the Age of Digital Surveillance

How Delusions Change With Technological Advancement

Do you ever get paranoid about a creep hacking your computer webcam? Or being monitored by some government agency, foreign or domestic? Having someone take a surreptitious photo of you in the locker room? Face it, there are a host of things that many of us are paranoid about these days.

I bet having your picture taken by someone with a bulky film camera is not on your list. Yet it might have been, if you lived 100 years ago. For back then “Kodak Fiends” prowled the land and—hold onto …

By David LaPorte | September 7, 2016

Do You Know Where Your Big Data Is?

Corporations are Constantly Gathering—and Selling—Your Personal Information, Says Adam Tanner. But You Don’t Have to Roll Over and Give it to Them.

by Sarah Rothbard | September 26, 2014

The infamous East German secret police—the Stasi—have nothing on 21st century corporations when it comes to extracting personal information from individuals. Adam Tanner, author of What Stays in Vegas: The …

I’m One of the Muslims the NYPD Spied On

New York’s Anti-Terrorism Surveillance Program Not Only Wasted Money. It Also Robbed People Like Me of Our Trust in American Government.

by Kahraman Haliscelik | April 28, 2014

For many years, local and federal law enforcement agencies spied on Muslims and mosques in the U.S., hoping to find bad guys before they could commit acts of terrorism. But …

How I Learned to Stop Worrying, Love China, and Be OK With Spying

Charles Kenny on the Myth of American Decline and Kevin Bankston and Katherine Mangu-Ward on Obama and the NSA

Hosted by Anne-Marie Slaughter | January 17, 2014

Economist Charles Kenny, currently a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, explains to Anne-Marie Slaughter why a rising China is something Americans should embrace rather than fear. Kevin …

He’s No Whistle-Blower … For Now

It’s Not Yet Clear Whether Edward Snowden Revealed Illegal Behavior

by Allison Stanger | January 10, 2014

Edward Snowden is many things to many people, and in recent days The New York Times and The Guardian have favorably editorialized about the overdue debate he has initiated. Rightly …

Will We Fracture the Internet?

Unless We Curb Our Addiction to Surveillance and Secret Hacking, We Might Not Have a Choice

by Sascha Meinrath | October 15, 2013

Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff’s recent indictment of the United States’ cyber-spying practices has profound global repercussions for the U.S. vision of a borderless, open Internet.

What makes this backlash especially potent …

surveillance