New technologies are making it easier for governments and corporations to learn the minutiae of our online activities. Corporations collect our information to sell to the highest bidder while an expanding surveillance apparatus and outdated privacy laws allow the government to monitor us like never before.

With more and more of our lives moving online, these intrusions have devastating implications for our right to privacy. But more than just privacy is threatened when everything we say, everywhere we go, and everyone we associate with are fair game. We have seen that surveillance—whether by governments or corporations—chills free speech and free association, undermines a free media, and threatens the free exercise of religion.

We shouldn’t have to choose between using new technologies and keeping our personal information private. The ACLU works to promote a future where technology can be implemented in ways that protect civil liberties, to limit the collection of personal information, and to ensure that individuals have control over their private data.