New Surveillance Technology Gives Government More Tools To Watch Your Every Move

The Wall Street Journal obtained documents that show how the global market for surveillance technology has grown since 9/11, and that the primary users are government and law enforcement.

The techniques described in the trove of 200-plus marketing documents, spanning 36 companies, include hacking tools that enable governments to break into people’s computers and cellphones, and “massive intercept” gear that can gather all Internet communications in a country. The papers were obtained from attendees of a secretive surveillance conference held near Washington, D.C., last month.

Intelligence agencies in the U.S. and abroad have long conducted their own surveillance. But in recent years, a retail market for surveillance tools has sprung up from “nearly zero” in 2001 to about $5 billion a year, said Jerry Lucas, president of TeleStrategies Inc., the show’s operator.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.