Protester surveillance

Surveillance of lawful protesters means the use of state surveillance tools — license-plate readers, social-media monitoring, undercover infiltration, cellular site simulators, facial recognition — against people exercising First Amendment rights. The constitutional protection runs to assembly and association as well as speech, and surveillance can chill those rights even when no other action is taken. The publication tracks documented surveillance of protesters who are not the subject of any criminal investigation, and the maintenance of databases that catalog lawful political activity.