Click Here Chasing shadows with The Citizen Lab
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Feb 20, 2026 
Ron Deibert, founder and director of The Citizen Lab, is an academic investigator of digital espionage and spyware. He recounts tracing global surveillance from a basement lab to uncovering censorship, the Tibet spreadsheet breakthrough, and the discovery of Pegasus and its zero-click attacks. The conversation highlights policy impacts and the growing normalization of surveillance.
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Basement Origin Of The Citizen Lab
- Ron Deibert discovered the internet's darker side after studying politics and telecommunications in university.
- He smuggled into a basement space at the University of Toronto to build what became the Citizen Lab.
Turning Tech Against Its Abusers
- Ron realized the same tech that enables freedom can be repurposed by states to surveil citizens.
- He proposed citizens and researchers could use technology to watch governments back and hold them accountable.
A Hacker's First Breakthrough
- Nart Villeneuve, a self-taught hacker, taught the lab how to probe foreign networks without detection.
- Their early probing revealed systematic web censorship and government surveillance in countries like China.
