How AI-Powered Mass Surveillance Is Expanding Under U.S. Government Programs

Everyday Surveillance: How Your Data Is Collected Without Consent

On a Saturday morning, you head to the hardware store. Your neighbors’ Ring cameras film your walk to the car. Your car’s sensors, cameras, and microphones record your speed, how you drive, where you’re going, who’s with you, what you say, and biological metrics such as facial expression, weight, and heart rate. Your car may also collect text messages and contacts from your connected smartphone.

Meanwhile, your phone continuously senses and records your communications, health data, app usage, and location via cell towers, GPS satellites, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. As you enter the store, its surveillance cameras identify your face and track your movements through the aisles. If you then use Apple or Google Pay to make your purchase, your phone tracks what you bought and how much you paid.

All this data quickly becomes commercially available, bought and sold by data brokers. Aggregated and analyzed by artificial intelligence, the data reveals detailed, sensitive information about you that can be used to predict and manipulate your behavior—including what you buy, feel, think, and do.

Surveillance Capitalism: Who Profits From Your Data?

Companies unilaterally collect data from most of your activities. This “surveillance capitalism” is often unrelated to the services device manufacturers, apps, and stores are providing you. For example, Tinder is planning to use AI to scan your entire camera roll.

Despite promises of “opting out,” these companies continue collecting data. While businesses can manipulate your behavior, they cannot imprison you. The U.S. government, however, can—and increasingly does—by purchasing Americans’ sensitive data from commercial brokers.

Government Exploits Legal Loopholes to Access Your Data

The federal government can buy your personal information because the data it purchases from brokers is not subject to the same legal restrictions as information it collects directly. It is also expanding its surveillance capabilities through direct partnerships with private tech companies.

These surveillance tech partnerships are becoming entrenched, both domestically and abroad, as advances in AI push surveillance to unprecedented levels.

How AI Surveillance Is Accelerating Under Federal Funding

Congressional funding is fueling massive government investments in AI-driven surveillance and data analytics. The 2025 tax-and-spending law allocated $165 billion annually to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a DHS agency, receiving about $86 billion.

Disclosures from allegedly hacked DHS documents reveal a sprawling surveillance network encompassing all Americans. DHS is rapidly expanding its AI surveillance programs through increased contracts with private companies.

Key Takeaways on AI Surveillance Expansion

• AI-driven surveillance tools are collecting biometric, behavioral, and location data from everyday devices.
• The U.S. government bypasses privacy laws by purchasing data from brokers instead of collecting it directly.
• Federal funding is accelerating AI surveillance programs, with DHS and ICE receiving billions in new allocations.
• Partnerships with private tech firms are deepening government access to personal data.

“To understand the issues, it is critical to know how these technologies function, who collects what data about you, how that data can be used against you, and why the laws you might think are protecting your data do not apply or are ignored.”

— Privacy and tech law attorney, author, and legal educator