Welcome to Tech Policy Podcast. I'm Ashken Kazarian, Legal and Research Fellow at Tech Freedom.

Today, we're going to do a year interview and talk about surveillance in America.

Joining us is Michelle Richardson, Deputy Director of a Center for Democracy and Technology, Freedom, Security and Technology Project,

and senior fellow at GW Center for Cyber and Homeland Security.

Michelle, thank you for being here.

Thanks for having me.

So, Michelle, do you mind starting off by telling us about all the wonderful ways that American government can spy on its citizens?

Sure.

So most surveillance falls into one of two categories. The first is

for criminal investigations, and this can happen at the local, state, or federal level. And usually

when people say surveillance, they mean electronic surveillance. So your phone calls, your text,

your emails, and the types of things that they get

from companies. And there are rules in every state about how you do this. But in general, if they

want to read your emails or listen to your phone calls or get your texts, they have to get a

warrant. So this is traditional law and order

stuff, right? You know, there's probable cause. They have to get a judge to sign off on it. They have

to name you and say what they think you did wrong or why would you have evidence of a crime.

And full-fledged wiretaps, like if they really want to listen to your phone calls and target you,

they're very expensive. They're $50,000, they say on average. So they're not actually used that

often in investigations. It is easier, though, for them to get records. So they can go to your

phone company or your

email provider and just get the records of who you're communicating with. Or maybe they go to your

...