People who peacefully resist government policies can be subject to police, intelligence agency, and corporate surveillance. There is a long, documented history in Australia and other countries, going back decades. Peaceful protesters and those who dissent have been targeted at a variety of levels. Security culture is important to stay safe.
Activists are unlikely to be tracked and recorded in real time, except for particular events. It would be more rare for an individual phone tap, for example, than broad-scale use of metadata to track patterns of movement between activist groups.
When activists meet and people take their phones away from meetings and put them in another room, this is generally based on the off chance that a single phone in the group could be tapped. (Your microphone can be remotely activated. There are ways for tracking to still occur even without battery, whilst switched off.)
As part of good security culture habits, always practice good digital privacy.
Different kinds of surveillance
- Physical infiltration of groups. This has been documented in mainstream media – with a record of both police and corporations infiltrating meetings.
- Monitoring metadata
- Monitoring computers, installing things like keyloggers
- Phone taps
- High tech recording/listening devices that can detect noise over distance – for example, near a blockade camp
Examples of surveillance
- Coal spies: The secret world of black op
- Green party peer put on database of ‘extremists’ after police surveillance
- Castlemaine Independent Government confirms AFP spying on coal seam gas protest
- Persons of Interest
- Activists the US Military Targeted & Spied Upon Were Designated ‘Domestic Terrorists’
- Federal police spying on phone and internet records