In the HBO documentary “Surveilled,” Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow travels the world to investigate and expose the dark underbelly of the sophisticated multi-billion dollar spyware industry. The film shows that repressive regimes are not the only ones using spyware to clandestinely hack into citizens’ mobile phones and computers; Democratic governments are also guilty of spying on unwitting individuals.

“In recent years we have seen a succession of Western democracies where people really thought, ‘This can’t be happening here’, with scandals involving the use of commercial spyware technology spiraling out of control, despite there being constitutions that should prevent it. says Farrow, whose most recent article for the New Yorker describes how the Trump administration could expand the use of commercial spyware in the US

The article examines the Department of Homeland Security’s recently signed $2 million contract with Israeli spyware company Paragon.

“A number of experts told me that the Department of Homeland Security’s acquisition of this technology, even though it is intended for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), does not necessarily mean that it will only be used by ICE for immigration purposes,” says Farrow . . “Not that we shouldn’t worry that ICE will combine Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportation with advanced spyware technology. But many privacy law experts I spoke to told me that we should all be really concerned, even if you don’t consider yourself in a vulnerable category. Even if you’re not a politician, activist or journalist, you’re still looking at a situation where you may not know until afterwards that you’re being targeted, and that’s another reason why it was important to me in this documentary, to tell the stories telling of innocent bystanders who are apolitical, who get caught in these dragnets.”

Farrow began reporting on the spyware industry after being targeted by cyber surveillance during his investigation into Harvey Weinstein, which would help spark the 2017 #MeToo movement.

“I came to this topic very naturally when I found myself being monitored in various ways while reporting on difficult stories that made people angry,” says Farrow. “It was personally frightening and devastating. It’s not just gathering information; there is a dimension of intimidation to it and, perhaps even more consistently, it reduces the space for us to do our work as journalists.”

Directed by Matthew O’Neill and Perri Peltz, ‘Surveilled’ takes viewers inside the secretive industry and highlights how the world of digital espionage is reshaping contemporary concepts of privacy and power. The documentary, which made its world debut this month at DOC NYC, explores ethical dilemmas that citizens and governments must now confront in the brave new world of cyber espionage.

Variety spoke with Farrow about Trump, the future of the #MeToo movement and how to avoid being hacked.

How can ICE use spyware to carry out Trump’s plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants?

Piglets: I’m trying to stay away from speculation, other than talking about the capabilities we have now, the promises being made, and how they might collide in scary ways. We don’t know what will happen, but I do know that a number of serious privacy law experts are now in a state of high anxiety as they look at Donald Trump making this promise of mass deportation. Also, his threats to subject political enemies to tribunals and the idea he has conveyed that journalists who protect sources should go to jail have alarmed privacy law experts (because) those promises become a lot scarier once they’re married. with this kind of (espionage) technology that his government will have at its fingertips.

In the documentary you interviewed people who help protect people and companies against cyber espionage. With spyware so widespread, do you think news media will have to hire security teams to protect their journalists from hackers?

It’s a big concern. If we want freedom of speech and information, we need privacy rights and devices that cannot be so easily compromised. We need to have checks and balances on these (espionage) tools, and one of the big casualties when these checks and balances disappear and these devices are just a public space, and there is no room for private conversations, is journalism. I don’t want to see a reality where the Trump administration lives up to what he says about jailing people in our profession who protect their sources. Unfortunately, that reality becomes much more likely if this technology is used in an unfettered manner.

How does the average citizen protect themselves against hacking?

Write to your representatives and call them to say you want accountability on this issue. While there are few complete defenses against advanced hacking technology, restarting your phone daily is something that several tech experts have advised over the course of my reporting.

Trump was found guilty of sexually assaulting and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll. Some of the men he selected to join his Cabinet – Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Matt Gaetz before he quit – have been accused of sexual misconduct. What do you think this means for the future of #MeToo – a movement against sexual violence? Are we going backwards?

I can’t give a satisfactory answer to the question because the most important part of my relationship with that reporting is that I was actually not acting as an activist but as an investigative journalist. The separate issue you raised about Trump’s appointments, I think, just ties into this broader pattern that we’re seeing with those appointments, which has been described by very credible journalists in recent days as a troll operation. There are people who have ignored and disregarded that. The agency they’re going to run is designed to protect that, which happens over and over again. So even though it has a dimension of maybe nose-in on the standards of consent and accountability around sexual violence, it’s really just part of the moment when this administration comes in with a lot of evidence of many different types of violence. of contempt for the rule of law.

“Surveilled” is currently streaming on Max.