Abstract

In the time since the attacks on September 11, 2001, state surveillance systems have expanded, threatening private communications and eroding human rights to expression and privacy. In this chapter, we discuss state surveillance harms and propose surveillance reform tactics with the aim of supporting efforts to ensure fundamental human rights are respected, and the legal, technical and social mechanisms of state surveillance are transparent and accountable, governed and governable. Reform tactics include digital mobilization against regulatory efforts to expand state surveillance; building a popular non-partisan movement; advocating for repatriation of domestic internet traffic through network sovereignty efforts; financial activism; and the design of an international policy standard. We conclude with reflections on the potential for surveillance reform in Canada. While the majority of examples we cite are Canadian, we believe they may be replicable in other international contexts. Crafting policy and law is a community undertaking and we hope for these tactics to be usable by policy-makers and civil society alike.