25 years of mass surveillance is enough
- ID
- 24705
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 15 Sep 2026, 7:26 PM
- Fetched
- 17 Sep 2026, 11:18 AM
- Provider
- Hacker News
- Category
- dev-community
- Original URL
- https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/09/25-years-of-mass-surveillance-is-enough.html
- Source URL
- https://hnrss.org/best
Summary
- Score
- 3.0
- Created
- 17 Sep 2026, 11:21 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developerssaas_founders
What happened
Bruce Schneier and Cindy Cohn argue in a Lawfare essay that post-9/11 mass surveillance—originally justified for counterterrorism—has become a routine law enforcement and private-sector tool, used by ICE for immigration enforcement, against protesters, and in private venues like Madison Square Garden and Flock license plate camera networks. They call for an end to 25 years of dragnet surveillance architecture.
Why it matters
This is a civil liberties policy essay with no direct builder action item. It is relevant only as context for builders shipping surveillance-adjacent tech (facial recognition, license plate readers, metadata collection) who may face increasing regulatory or public scrutiny.
Discussion angle
If your product touches user metadata, location, or biometric data, this essay signals the political climate around surveillance tech is shifting—worth a brief note on whether your data collection practices could become a liability.