Preemptive Mass Surveillance, Its Effects on Liberty and Purism’s Role

In her September 15, 2025, New York Times opinion piece, Elizabeth Daniel Vasquez disclosed a reality too many Americans were not aware of: the New York Police Department has quietly built one of the most expansive, integrated surveillance systems in the nation’s history. What began as a patchwork of cameras and databases has evolved into a $3 billion “Domain Awareness System” or (DAS)- capable of tracking, recording, and predicting the movements of millions of people, most of whom have never been accused of a crime.

More than a century ago, Justice Louis Brandeis warned that liberty is most endangered not from sudden tyranny, but by “gradual and silent encroachments” on our freedoms. He called privacy “the right to be let alone — the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.” That principle is not a relic of the past; it is the standard by which we should measure the various surveillance systems being built around us today.

This is not just a New York story. It is a warning to every city, every state, and every citizen who believes liberty is not something granted by the state, but held as a right.

The Liberty Cost

This is not an abstract policy debate. It is a lived reality. A teenager in Brooklyn’s Marcy Houses without committing a crime, can be swept into a gang database because of a hashtag or a photo with the wrong classmate. Once tagged, he may face repeated stops, phone seizures, and constant monitoring—his life reshaped by an algorithm’s suspicion.

It is the chilling effect on a parent who wonders if attending a rally will put their name in a permanent file. It is the erosion of the “right to be let alone”. A right lost is rarely regained.

It is the dangerous precedent: today’s data, collected under one justification, can be weaponized tomorrow for another—whether to target abortion seekers, political dissidents, or any group deemed inconvenient to those in power.

Seemingly harmless data or metadata, once cross-referenced and compiled, becomes a dossier on every citizen. The result is a slow but profound chilling of privacy and personal freedom.

Why Privacy is Not a Luxury

At Purism, we’ve always said: privacy is a prerequisite for liberty. Without control over our own data, we cannot control our own lives. The NYPD’s Domain Awareness System and the federal push to merge agency databases reverse that principle, granting the state perpetual possession of our movements, associations, and beliefs.

This is not a problem you can solve with a VPN or encrypted messenger alone. Those tools are essential, but they cannot erase the warehouses of data already collected. The only true safeguard is structural: laws that prohibit preemptive, suspicionless data collection by government agencies.

The Path Forward

We must demand:

Legislation banning mass, preemptive surveillance by law enforcement
Strict limits on data retention and mandatory deletion timelines
Clear rules on access and use, with independent oversight
Recognition of personal data as personal property, owned by the individual

Nearly half of U.S. states have privacy laws, but every one of them carves out exceptions for law enforcement. That loophole swallows the rule. Closing it is not anti-police—it is pro-liberty.

Purism’s Role and Digital Bill of Rights

Purism exists to build technology that respects you by default. But technology alone cannot protect liberty if the law itself is designed to undermine it. That’s why we advocate, loudly and unapologetically, for a future where your data belongs to you—not to a government database waiting for the next political shift.

Purism’s Digital Bill of Rights lays out, in plain language, the foundational freedoms every technology user should expect: the right to control your data, the right to secure communications, the right to use free software, and the right to be free from unwarranted surveillance. These aren’t aspirational ideals; they are the baseline for a society that values liberty in the digital age.

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