GW Law Professor Daniel Solove talks with GW Research Magazine About His Latest Research
October 9, 2025
For authoritarian governments, surveillance has always been a powerful tool for stifling dissent and ensuring obedience in a population.
Private information gathered on individuals can be used to manipulate, blackmail or threaten them with punishment.
In his article, “Privacy in Authoritarian Times: Surveillance Capitalism and Government Surveillance,” GW Law scholar Daniel J. Solove explains how today’s era of surveillance capitalism–in which corporations relentlessly collect, store and commodify our personal data–can empower authoritarian governments.
According to Solove, a government’s ability to access troves of private information on its citizens is made easier by the fact that corporations have compiled extensive “digital dossiers” on each of us that contain everything from health and financial data to data on our beliefs and interests. Weak privacy laws and outdated legal doctrines have done little to shield consumers or safeguard democracy.
The Fourth Amendment, for example, protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures, including the capture of personal data. However, the third-party doctrine, crafted by the Supreme Court in the 1970s, states that individuals who voluntarily give their information to a third party forfeit any reasonable expectation of privacy. Buoyed by this doctrine, an authoritarian government could request–or demand–that a corporation share data it has collected on individuals without the need for a warrant and without violating any legal restrictions.
Read more at GWU Law.