By Jacob R. Appelbaum

Electronic surveillance systems, in their twenty-first century totality, create an environment of pervasive surveillance where most, if not all, communications channels are monitored in some capacity. Sociologists and other academic researchers define surveillance in many different ways. We consider the definition from Lyon from Surveillance Studies: “any systematic, routine, and focused attention to personal details for a given purpose (such as management, influence, or entitlement)”. Today’s Internet is the primary terrain of struggle between those committed to attacking electronic communications, whether in targeted surveillance of individuals or indiscriminate mass surveillance of whole populations, and those committed to securing communications from attack.

The two most prevalent surveillance adversaries are state and corporate actors, though in some situations there is no meaningful distinction between these. Fusion Centers for example, are an American domestic intelligence apparatus that aggregates data provided by government agencies, corporations, and private persons, resulting at times in Americans being persecuted for engaging in constitutionally protected activities. Surveillance data of all kinds collected from other terrains readily merges into the Internet’s IP traffic flows. This collection is not merely through passive observation of our communications, but also through active interaction and exploitation, along with analysis of behavioral data, other systems data, and data at rest.