STANDING UP TO SURVEILLANCE
We fight surveillance laws, policies, and practices that undermine human rights. From investigating spyware attacks that target human rights defenders to fighting biometric surveillance systems that put entire communities at risk, we work to hold manufacturers and investors accountable for the impact of dangerous surveillance tech and push for strict regulations to prevent widespread abuse.
Exiled, then spied on: Civil society in Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland targeted with Pegasus spyware
All governments must establish an immediate moratorium on the export, sale, transfer, servicing, and use of targeted digital surveillance technologies until rigorous human rights safeguards are put in place to stop human rights abuses.
Resources
Data Protection
Geneva Declaration: international community unites to end spyware abuse
Access Now and the Government of Catalonia are calling for an end to the proliferation of surveillance tech through the Geneva Declaration.
Digital Identity Systems
Surveilling Europe’s edges: when digitalisation means dehumanisation
In the first of a three-part blog series, Caterina Rodelli explains how digital surveillance is dehumanising people at Europe’s borders.
Data Protection
Manual del Pequeñx Vigiladx
El Manual del Pequeñx Vigiladx es una guía para ayudarte a navegar el sistema judicial en caso de sufrir una detención errónea por sistemas biométricos.
Digital Security
New guide: surveillance technology investors face significant risks if human rights are ignored
A new guide on effective due diligence will help shareholders with investments in surveillance technology prevent and mitigate human rights risks.
Data Protection
Sonic surveillance: why you don’t want AI snooping on you
The threat voice recognition technology poses to our rights needs to be addressed now — before our voices become yet another piece of biometric data to be used against us.
Surveillance
Ban Biometric Surveillance
Some surveillance technologies are so dangerous that they inevitably cause far more problems than they solve. The use of facial recognition and remote biometric technologies in publicly accessible spaces enables
Digital Security
MENA Surveillance Coalition: stop all surveillance tech sales to the region’s autocratic governments
The MENA Surveillance Coalition is demanding the immediate end to the sale of surveillance technology to Middle East and North Africa’s (MENA) autocratic governments.
Latest Updates
Why client-side scanning on encrypted platforms is a lose-lose proposition
Regulators worldwide have been pushing client-side scanning (CSS) as a way to examine encrypted communications. But this system still undermines people’s privacy and security by circumventing end-to-end encryption, as we explain.
Paragon: stop spyware abuse and deliver justice to victims
Paragon must answer for spyware use against civil society and journalists
Access Now calls on Paragon to answer for the use of its spyware in Italy against journalists, and to address oversight failures.
Digital ceasefire: the path to peace goes online
In today’s era of digital warfare, digital ceasefires are cornerstones on the pathway to peace. Access Now has been working with peace-building experts to discuss exactly what a digital ceasefire should look like.
The EU must stop the digitalisation of the deportation regime and withdraw the new Return Regulation
On March 11, 2025, the European Commission published a new legislative proposal for a ‘Return Regulation’ which is set to expand the detention and deportation of migrant people, including children, in the EU.
No normalising spyware: Italy admits use, but not the full extent
نحو مستقبل رقمي آمن وحر في سوريا
رفع العقوبات عن سوريا خطوة مهمة نحو التقدّم، لكن لا يزال أمام السوريين الكثير لبناء مستقبل رقمي حر وآمن ومفتوح.
Reclaiming Syria’s digital future
LIBE vote on Europol reform blow to the Commission, but still legitimises an expanding surveillance regime
IOM’s digital tool aims to speed up migrant removals, but at what cost?
How Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws entrap people online
As we mark the IDAHOBIT 2025, we highlight research on Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws and show how they can lead to digital entrapment and human rights violations.
La empresa propietaria del software espía Pegasus, condenada a pagar 168 millones de dólares a Meta
حكم بتغريم شركة “إن إس أو” الإسرائيلية 168 مليون دولار لاختراقها “واتساب”
Court clash between Meta and NSO ends in $168 million defeat for spyware firm
NSO to pay $168 million in damages to WhatsApp for Pegasus spyware hacking