Last updated: 2026-07-04
Short version
Read the site, use the guides, quote us with a link back. Don't scrape the whole site, don't pass our content off as your own, and don't treat anything here as professional legal, security, or financial advice, it's educational journalism. Some links earn us a commission; that's disclosed separately and never changes the coverage.
1. Acceptance of These Terms
By accessing or using stateofsurveillance.org (“the site,” “we,” “us”), you agree to these Terms of Service. If you don't agree, please don't use the site. We may update these terms from time to time, see Section 9.
2. What This Site Is
State of Surveillance is an independent publication covering government and corporate surveillance, digital privacy, and security. We publish news, investigations, and how-to guides. See our About page for how the newsroom is run and our Corrections policy for how we handle errors.
3. Not Professional Advice
⚠️ Educational content, not a substitute for professional advice
Nothing on this site is legal, security, or financial advice tailored to your specific situation. Our guides describe general practices (VPN use, data-broker opt-outs, encrypted messaging, opsec basics, and similar) for educational purposes. Your own threat model, jurisdiction, and circumstances may call for different choices. For a serious legal matter, consult a lawyer; for a serious security threat, consult a qualified security professional. We are not liable for outcomes from following advice published on this site, see Section 7.
4. Use of Content
Articles, guides, and other content on this site are owned by State of Surveillance unless otherwise credited. You're welcome to:
- Read, share, and link to our content
- Quote short excerpts with attribution and a link back to the original page (standard fair-use-style journalistic quoting)
You may not, without our written permission:
- Republish full articles or guides on another site
- Scrape or bulk-download the site for republication or to train a commercial product
- Present our reporting as your own work
- Use our name or branding to imply an endorsement that doesn't exist
5. Accuracy and Corrections
We source every central claim to a primary record and correct errors in the open, see our corrections policy. Surveillance and privacy news moves fast; a guide or fact that was accurate when published can become outdated. We make no warranty that any page is complete, current, or error-free at the moment you read it. Spot an error? Tell us and we'll fix it.
6. Third-Party Links, Affiliate Links, and Donations
This site links to third-party tools, services, and organizations throughout its guides and reviews. We don't control those sites and aren't responsible for their content, availability, or practices.
Some links are affiliate links: we earn a commission if you buy something through them, at no extra cost to you. This never changes our recommendation or our criticism of a product, see our affiliate disclosure and the Resources page for the current list. If you choose to support the site financially, donations are processed by a third-party payment provider under its own terms; donations are generally non-refundable and do not entitle you to any product or service in return beyond what's stated on the Support page.
7. Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability
This site and its content are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. To the fullest extent permitted by law, State of Surveillance and its contributors are not liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of this site, reliance on its content, or any action you take (or don't take) based on it, including but not limited to: choices about VPNs, password managers, data-broker services, or any other product reviewed here, or opsec/security practices described in our guides.
8. Prohibited Uses
You agree not to: attempt to disrupt or overload the site's infrastructure; attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of the site or its backend systems; use the site to distribute malware or conduct phishing; or impersonate State of Surveillance or its contributors elsewhere.
9. Changes to These Terms
We may revise these terms as the site or its practices change. The “Last updated” date at the top reflects the most recent revision. Continued use of the site after a change means you accept the updated terms.
10. Governing Law
These terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which the site's operator resides, without regard to conflict-of-law principles, to the extent your own local consumer-protection law doesn't otherwise apply and can't be waived.
11. Contact
Questions about these terms: the fastest path is the support page, or our Telegram channel.