With more than 16,500 known security vulnerabilities being catalogued, 2018 set a new record over last year’s previous record of 14,714.

Officials would have a say in the policies that govern surveillance tools and would get annual reports on them – including what data was shared, with whom, where surveillance happened, whether complaints resulted, and information about costs and data breaches.

Close to 60 percent of Americans polled oppose the NSA’s collection of data on telephone and Internet usage, and a similar majority opposes the legal process supervised by a secret federal court that oversees the government’s classified surveillance, the AP report says.

The majority of Americans worry that the U.S. will go too far in violating privacy rights through NSA surveillance. 

People have a reasonable expectation of privacy of their cellphone location information, the New Jersey Supreme Court rules. 

The retention of license plate reader data for years or indefinitely is one of the ACLU's main concerns on the data's collection, especially for people who have broken no laws. 

NSA surveillance could have violated as many as five French privacy laws, according to a suit from the International Federation for Human Rights and the Human Rights League. 

U.S. border agents are allowed to search a traveler’s laptop, cellphone or other electronic device and keep copies of any data on them based on no more than a hunch, according to an internal study from the Homeland Security Department. 

LA's Automatic License Plate Readers can record as many as 1,800 license plates per minute, but critics of the program say it gives authorities a huge database on the actions of ordinary citizens.

The infamous demands for confidential records require no court approval and have previously come with a built-in gag order, but several rulings from the California have emboldened search giant Google to challenge the letters.