FBI and Corporate Surveillance
“If you’ve done nothing wrong, you should have nothing to hide” is a line we’ve all heard. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Indiscriminate, rampant surveillance is used by the FBI, Homeland Security, and other government agencies to spy on protesters, journalists, and anyone who speaks truth to power.
This information is domestically through Joint Terrorism Task Forces, and internationally through secret spy networks. In the post-9/11 era, an industry of corporate spy agencies have emerged, willing to sell their services to the highest bidder.
My reporting on surveillance has focused on FBI abuses, alongside the manufactured intelligence of these mercenary spy firms. But through the Freedom of Information Act, I also uncovered surveillance of my own journalistic work, including speaking events, media interviews, news articles, correspondence.
The Counter Terrorism Unit also included a write-up of my book, noting that it is “compelling and well-written.”
Seeing my own work being monitored in this way prompted me to create research teams at the University of Michigan, where we collected and analyzed FBI documents that reveal how prominent journalists were treated as national security threats for their reporting.
I have also trained other journalist how to protect their privacy in the face of government repression, collaborating with the Society of Environmental Journalists and others. I regularly speak about FBI and corporate surveillance, including the Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conference alongside Malkia Cyril and Edward Snowden.
