SurveillanceWatch.io is a community-driven platform offering an interactive map that exposes the complex web of global surveillance companies, including their subsidiaries, financial backers, and interrelations. The site aims to bring transparency to the opaque surveillance technology industry, which is often linked to threats against human rights, journalists, and dissidents2359.

Key features:

  • Interactive map: Shows where various surveillance technologies are deployed, which companies are behind them, and how they are funded23459.
  • Entity database: Catalogs surveillance companies, their types, locations, funders, and affiliations, enabling users to trace how data and funding move globally—often skirting local privacy regulations39.
  • API access: Provides endpoints for retrieving information about surveilling entities, categories, countries, cities, and funding organizations, supporting integration into external projects or analysis tools1.
  • Transparency mission: Founded by privacy advocates—including individuals directly harmed by surveillance tech—the initiative seeks to expose enablers of rights violations and demand accountability in the surveillance ecosystem2.

Intended audience and uses:

  • Journalists, researchers, and privacy advocates interested in investigating who deploys surveillance technology and how systems are interconnected.
  • Citizens seeking to understand what kinds of surveillance are used in their regions—for example, the United States is mapped in detail, revealing the saturation and distribution of technologies like drones and IMSI catchers4.

Surveillance Watch is recognized for its well-cited, volunteer-driven data, broad stakeholder mapping, and a user-friendly interface that makes complex relationships in the surveillance industry visible for public scrutiny and further research359.

  1. https://www.surveillancewatch.io/docs
  2. https://racismandtechnology.center/2025/06/03/surveillancewatch-io-we-can-now-watch-spyware-companies-back/
  3. https://werd.io/surveillance-watch-they-know-who-you-are/
  4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGa_F9CwEyo
  5. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jason-heath-profile_surveillance-watch-they-know-who-you-are-activity-7238318467769061376-wd3Q
  6. https://twitter.com/PrivacyMatters/status/1945932037904339115
  7. https://x.com/wikileaks/status/1831648230590800086
  8. https://bsky.app/profile/privacymatters.bsky.social/post/3lu6oszkyvc23
  9. https://www.surveillancewatch.io