On Tuesday, March 3, 2026, Deirdre K. Mulligan, professor in the UC Berkeley School of Information, testified at an informational hearing before the California State Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection: “Somebody’s Watching you: Californian’s Privacy in the Age of Mass Surveillance.”
Mulligan joined other panelists from the University of California system, including UC San Francisco Law Center for Constitutional Democracy Executive Director Nicole Ozer and UC Davis School of Law Acting Professor Nila Bala, to discuss surveillance by the private and public sectors and its impact on the public. Mulligan’s panel examined the tools businesses use to surveil consumers and workers to enhance their profits and the implications for Californians.
UC experts are at the forefront of efforts to shape the future of California’s relationship with technology, with many—such as Mulligan—being tapped to join advisory councils on the matter.
“Surveillance is no longer episodic or confined to particular contexts; it is ambient and embedded in the architecture of our daily lives,” said Mulligan in the hearing.
She noted that new surveillance technologies have vastly increased the amount of data collected by the private sector. In particular, machine learning models are able to extract patterns and draw inferences about things like health conditions from seemingly unrelated topics.
Mulligan also pointed out that large language model chatbots have affected the quantity of information that individuals share with AI companies. Many people now ask these models long-form questions and hold entire conversations for the sake of emotional support, seeking advice or guidance, and even intimacy — in turn helping corporations build robust data profiles on their users.
“They are turning over reams of information about their follies, fantasies, neuroses, desires, hopes and fears in ways that have no precedent in the history of commercial data collection,” she added.
“Surveillance is no longer episodic or confined to particular contexts; it is ambient and embedded in the architecture of our daily lives.”
Mulligan also mentioned that while California has the most robust privacy laws in the country, they assume that individuals understand the risks of disclosing personal information. However, in a world where more and more types of information are being collected, individuals are often unaware of the insights into their behaviors and beliefs that can be gleaned from their data and how it can be used. For example, companies have used consumer information to set individualized prices to maximize profit from each individual, as well as run continuous experiments to shape consumers’ desires and behaviors without notice, consent or participation.
“Privacy operates at the individual level, but surveillance operates at the collective level. It leverages individuals’ data to classify, make inferences and predictions, and manipulates not only them but others like them or related to them,” explained Mulligan.
“Addressing the risk of surveillance capitalism requires strategies that operate and protect against risks posed by tranches of personal data, not just our own.”
