covert surveillance
Hidden observation operations
Covert surveillance is secret monitoring of a person, place, or activity—watching without the target's knowledge.
Law enforcement conducts covert surveillance on suspected criminals; intelligence agencies surveil foreign operatives.
The term appears in legal and policy contexts where the secrecy itself requires justification: The court authorized covert surveillance of the suspect's communications.
- counterterrorismCombating organized political violence
- suspectsThinks someone's guilty
- wiretappingCovert phone surveillance
- phone tappingSecretly monitoring communications
- tailingSecretly following someone
stakeout · privacy rights · whistleblowers · corporate espionage · activists · COINTELPRO · secret police · shadow government · dissidents · oversight committees · human rights violations · undercover operations · bugging · criminal investigations · employees · competitors · political figures · criminals
- espionagespy, spies, double agent, double agents, spying
- eavesdroppingoverhearing, spying, overheard conversation
- surveillanceCCTV, security camera, spy, spying, spy cam
covert surveillanceprivacy
Freedom from observation
anonymity · non-interference · personal autonomy · privacy protection · data protection
covert, surveillance, cover, covered, covering, covers, covertly, covertness, uncover