Nowadays, States have an increased technological capacity to conduct surveillance on all communications. As stated by the UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression in his 2013 report, the States have an unprecedented capability to conduct simultaneous, invasive, targeted, and large-scale surveillance activities due to technological advances. This represents a threat to several rights recognized in State constitutions and by international human rights treaties that have been ratified by various States. These rights include privacy, since private information may be accessed without the owner's authorization; freedom of association, since the activities of a group of people may be surveilled; freedom of expression, since communications surveillance may lead to self-censorship or repression; and access to information, since information collected and stored by way of surveillance may be hidden from its owner and used for unknown purposes.