Surveilled follows journalist Ronan Farrow as he investigates the growing business of commercial spyware, from New York to Tel Aviv. The film documents the center of espionage cybertechnology in Israel with the NSO Group, developing the spyware Pegasus. Once a target of covert surveillance himself, Farrow explores the multi-billion-dollar industry, addressing the contradictory uses and implications of phone hacking: the ability to monitor criminal activity and the attendant threats to civil liberties. NSO Group markets Pegasus as a product for fighting crime and terrorism. But governments and corporations around the world routinely use the spyware to surveil journalists, lawyers, political dissidents, and human rights activists.