The world is undergoing a “spyware revolution,” with advances in surveillance technology enabling states and private actors to surveil almost anyone, anywhere in the world, through their mobile phones. The consequences of this are profound, Ronald Deibert writes in a new essay. Autocratic regimes increasingly use spyware to spy on citizens, neutralize political opposition, and suppress dissent—but the use of such technology is not limited to authoritarian governments, notes Deibert, who is director of the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, a digital rights watchdog group. Many democracies have started to use advanced spyware technology, as well.
What will happen if the adoption of predatory spyware continues to grow unchecked? Left unregulated, Deibert writes, “the proliferation of this technology threatens to erode many of the institutions, processes, and values on which the liberal international order depends.” If elites in any country can wield spyware technology to consolidate power, then the future of democracy “may soon be no more secure than the passwords on our phones.”
Read more from Foreign Affairs on the relationship between technology and power:
“How AI Makes Dictators More Dangerous” by Henry Farrell, Abraham Newman, and Jeremy Wallace
“How Digital Powers Will Reshape the Global Order” by Ian Bremmer
“How to Save Democracy From Technology” by Francis Fukuyama, Barak Richman, and Ashish Goel
“The Digital Dictators” by Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Erica Frantz, and Joseph Wright
“The Insidious Cyberthreat” by Jacquelyn Schneider
