Symvek’s Mission
Surveillance is a multi-billion dollar industry with advanced technology, government backing, and pervasive deployment. Counter-surveillance has traditionally been limited to governments, corporations, and the wealthy. Symvek exists to change that.
The problem
The surveillance landscape is asymmetric:
- Surveillance side: Hundreds of billions in annual spending. Advanced AI. Government authority. Millions of cameras, sensors, and data collection points worldwide.
- Counter-surveillance side: Expensive TSCM services ($5K-$50K per sweep). Limited consumer tools. Fragmented data. Low public awareness.
Most people don’t know what surveillance infrastructure exists in their daily environment. They cannot assess their exposure, plan routes with awareness, or detect hidden devices. This asymmetry is a problem for democracy, human rights, and individual autonomy.
Our approach
We build counter-surveillance technology from the browser to the physical world. Each layer funds and enables the next.
Sentinel (live in production). A surveillance awareness map that integrates public-records sources covering 183 countries: the FLOCK community dataset, EFF Atlas of Surveillance, OpenStreetMap, DeFlock, and 20+ government open-data feeds. Symvek’s contribution is operational integration, deduplication, normalization, daily refresh, and search. Free to use. On-device queries. The foundational awareness layer that every product above it draws on.
Shield (browser extension, in Chrome Web Store review). Privacy browser extension that blocks 22,000+ tracker domains, automates cookie consent, prevents fingerprinting, and strips URL tracking. Chrome MV3 and Firefox MV2. Zero data collection architecture, verifiable in source.
Research outputs. Position papers on counter-surveillance and counter-UAS architecture, including cryptographic-provenance multi-sensor fusion and evaluation methodology. Open at /research. Engineered to be cited, forked, and extended by others rather than retained as proprietary IP.
Watchpoint (desktop perception agent, Q3 2026). A continuous-perception agent for desktop. Detects nearby surveillance trackers, unfamiliar devices on your network, drone-vendor signatures, and surveillance camera density around you. Tauri shell, Python sensing engines, local SQLite. No data leaves your machine.
The long-term thesis: embodied AI. Machines that learn from the world rather than extracting from people. Counter-surveillance is AI safety, because the same instrumentation that surveils people is what a misaligned AI would inherit. Defending against it now is defending against AGI failure modes later.
Our values
Privacy by architecture. We cannot access your data because our systems are designed to never receive it. Not “we promise not to look.” We physically can’t.
Transparency. We publish our data sources, our methodology, and our limitations. Trust is built on transparency. Sentinel credits FLOCK, EFF, OpenStreetMap, DeFlock, and every government feed by name.
Accessibility. Counter-surveillance shouldn’t require a $50K budget. Our tools are free or affordable.
Defence, not attack. We help people understand and manage their surveillance exposure. We do not help anyone evade legitimate law enforcement or attack surveillance infrastructure.
Ship and iterate, honestly. We tell you what is shipping, what is in development, and what is a long-term vision. No vaporware.
Where we’re going
The counter-surveillance market is growing at 10%+ annually. As surveillance expands, the demand for awareness and protection tools grows with it. Symvek is building the company that makes counter-surveillance as accessible as surveillance itself, and the architectural pattern that lets defence operators detect real threats without becoming surveillance infrastructure themselves.
Privacy tools and revenue services fund the path. Defence technology is the destination. Embodied, ethical AI is the long-term vision.