Abstract
In How Mass Surveillance From Online Advertising Puts Journalists at Risk, Technology and Human Rights Fellow (2025-26) Jonathan Rozen examines how the vast data collection infrastructure underlying online advertising functions as a powerful surveillance ecosystem that threatens journalists, their sources, and press freedom. Drawing on interviews and investigations, Rozen traces how software development kits, real-time bidding systems, data brokers, advertising intelligence companies, and emerging ad-delivered spyware can expose sensitive information—including journalists’ locations, movements, contacts, and activities—to private companies, law enforcement, governments, and other actors. The paper highlights the transnational nature of this threat, gaps in existing legal protections, and concerns over artificial intelligence's abilities to analyze commercially available data.
This paper was published in conjunction with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which offers guidance for protecting against surveillance via advertising technology.