The United States has slid into competitive authoritarianism. The slide has been modest and remains reversible—but it is real. Even after Donald Trump, American democracy will remain fragile.

The Citizen Lab submitted a response to the Research Directorate at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.

This submission analyzes Bill C-22, the Lawful Access Act, which would enact broad surveillance obligations and reforms in Canada. Issues include: the bill’s sweeping scope, significant constitutional...

The SHARE Foundation has confirmed that at least 14 people in Serbia were targeted with advanced spyware since at the beginning of 2026 – the largest documented wave of such surveillance in the countr...

(text of an email sent to Brian Lee Crowley of the MacDonald Laurier Institute on September 2, 2026) Dear Brian, I am writing to you and your board with respect to the publication “The equity excelle...

The Information Controls Research Program (ICRP) (formerly known as the “Information Controls Fellowship Program) from the Open Technology Fund (OTF) supports applied research into how authoritarian g...

A former member of the European Parliament who served ​on a committee investigating abusive surveillance was himself hacked using an Israeli-made spy tool, a Canadian tech watchdog group ‌said on Frid...

A government customer of NSO Group used the company's Pegasus spyware to hack into the phone of a European politician, who at the time was serving on an EU committee tasked with investigating the spyw...

Bill C-22 will lay the legal groundwork for giving the US warrantless access to our data

Bill C-22 will lay the legal groundwork for giving the US warrantless access to our data

A network of at least 123 websites operated from within the People’s Republic of China while posing as local news outlets in 30 countries across Europe, Asia, and Latin America, disseminates pro-Beiji...

In collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), we identified what we conclude to be two distinct actors aligned with the People’s Republic of China. Our findin...

The campaigns exploited a weakness in telecom infrastructure to allow the unnamed vendors to secretly pose as real cellular providers and pinpoint victims’ locations.

Our investigation uncovers two sophisticated telecom surveillance campaigns and, for the first time, links real-world attack traffic to mobile operator signalling infrastructure. The findings expose h...

The Citizen Lab found two separate surveillance vendors abusing the backbone of cellular networks to spy on several victims across the world.

Location data collected from mobile apps and digital advertising can reveal habits, interests and almost any other aspect of someone's life. In this report, we uncover how a geolocation surveillance system called Webloc uses ad-based data to monitor hundreds of millions of people across the globe.

Intelligence agencies of Viktor Orbán's government have been secretly using Webloc — a mass surveillance tool that tracks hundreds of millions of people via smartphone advertising data — making Hungary the first confirmed EU country to deploy it, in likely violation of GDPR. Moreover, our investigation confirms the existence of "homegrown" OSINT and spyware tools.

In an effort to disseminate its preferred message, the Iranian regime is offering a simple transaction: connectivity for amplification.

Join us to learn and take action to prevent spear phishing and other digital attacks against activists, journalists, and human rights defenders.

Citizen Lab researchers have co-authored two submissions to the Committee on Enforced Disappearances and UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances.  One submission focuses on digital...

Cellebrite, which makes phone unlocking and hacking tools, stopped sales to countries that allegedly abused its tools. But after new allegations in Jordan and Kenya, the company has changed its approa...

Citizen Lab report suggests Cellebrite software was used to break into Boniface Mwangi’s phone while he was under arrest

Through a multi-year investigation, we find that the Jordanian security apparatus has deployed forensic extraction products manufactured by Cellebrite against civil society devices. We release these f...

Using Endless Mayfly as an illustration, this highlights the challenges of investigating & addressing disinformation from research & policy perspectives.

The Trump administration’s decision to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths from infectious diseases and malnutrition, accord...

By plugging tens of billions of phone numbers into WhatsApp’s contact discovery tool, researchers found “the most extensive exposure of phone numbers” ever—along with profile photos and more.

I gave the Saturday morning keynote at BSidesPDX! I spoke honestly and frankly about the terrifying reality that Americans are facing under Trump's fascist regime, alongside practical advise for commu...

We investigate a coordinated network of inauthentic X accounts that is spreading AI-generated content to induce revolt in Iran. The network has been active since 2023, but increased activity during th...

The group leveraged dozens of social media accounts and “routinely used” AI-generated imagery and video to stoke unrest among Iran’s population, according to Citizen Lab.

We investigate a coordinated network of inauthentic X accounts that is spreading AI-generated content to induce revolt in Iran. The network has been active since 2023, but increased activity during th...

Authoritarian regimes are targeting exiles and diaspora communities in more places than ever before. Activists, journalists, and regular people living abroad must watch their backs…

Traditional models of jurisdiction fail dissidents in an ever more connected world

JD Vance once dismissed conspiracy theories as the product of “fringe lunatics” but he's come to embrace them as his star rises in Republican politics.