About The Overseen
The Overseen is a nonprofit newsroom. We investigate surveillance, data and automated systems: who builds them, who buys them, and what happens to the people on the other end of them.
What we do
Ellen Brennock and Stephen Garrow founded The Overseen in 2022, and we published our first story in September of that year. Some of our investigations are published with other newsrooms; all of them appear here. Everything we publish is free to read, and other publications may republish our stories at no cost.
Our beat is narrow on purpose. We report on the companies that sell monitoring tools to police and employers, on the people who label the data that automated systems learn from, on lenders and manufacturers that can switch off what people depend on, and on the firms paid to manage what the public hears about all of it. We are interested less in the technology than in the person it is pointed at.
We have 16 staff, working from New York, Washington, Nashville, Seattle, London and Nairobi.
How we report
Most of our stories begin with records: contracts, audit logs, permits, court filings and the documents companies publish about themselves and hope nobody reads. We file public records requests in every state we report in, and we work with independent security researchers when a story depends on forensic evidence.
Before we publish, we contact every company and person we write about, tell them what we intend to report, and give them time to answer. We publish their answers. When a company responds after publication, we add its response to the story and say when we did. We do not let subjects review stories before publication.
We protect our sources. We will not name a person who asked not to be named unless they misled us, and we explain in the story why someone is anonymous. Our ethics and standards page sets out these rules in full, and our corrections page lists every error we have corrected.
The things we write about are rarely new. Every story ends with a short box headed This has happened before, which describes, in our own words, a case in which something similar happened, and links to reporting on it.
Who pays for it
In 2025 our revenue was $3.41 million. Fifty-eight percent came from charitable foundations, 27 percent from more than 6,800 individual members and donors, and 15 percent from events, licensing our reporting to other publications, and sponsorship. Since February 2026 we have published a small amount of clearly labeled partner content; our editors explained why.
No funder, member or partner has any say over what we report. We list every supporter who gave $5,000 or more, and every partner, on our funding page, and we publish our audited accounts and tax filings each year. Contributions to The Overseen are tax-deductible to the extent the law allows.
Staff
Newsroom
- Ellen Brennock Editor-in-Chief and co-founder New York
- Kayode Akinwande Managing Editor New York
- Hannah Sobczak Investigations Editor Washington
- Daniel Vreeland Senior Reporter, Policing Washington
- Nora Halvey Reporter, Health Nashville
- Tomás Arrieta Reporter, Work Seattle
- Imogen Fairlie Reporter, London London
- Lydia Chepkoech Contributing Reporter, Nairobi Nairobi
- Aaron Dziedzic Data Reporter New York
- Noor Shalabi Graphics Editor New York
- Diane Holcomb Standards Editor New York
- Maya Ekholm Audience and Newsletters Editor Seattle
- Peter Mahlangu Director of Newsroom Security Washington
Organization
- Stephen Garrow President and Publisher, co-founder New York
- Craig Elsworth Director of Development and Partnerships New York
- Helen Quayle Counsel New York
Board of directors
- Patricia Lowndes, Chair. Former executive editor of a regional newspaper group
- Samuel Idehen, Treasurer. Partner at an accounting firm that audits nonprofits
- Kathleen Moorcroft. Professor of journalism
- Linda Choate. Former public defender
- Raymond Tuckett. Retired software engineer and civil liberties volunteer
- Ellen Brennock. Editor-in-Chief, ex officio
- Stephen Garrow. President and Publisher, ex officio
The board oversees The Overseen’s finances and governance. It does not see stories before publication and has no role in editorial decisions.
Contact
- Tips and documents
- tips@theoverseen.org. Please read how to contact us safely first.
- Corrections
- corrections@theoverseen.org
- Opinion submissions
- opinion@theoverseen.org
- Members and donors
- members@theoverseen.org
- Sponsorship and partner content
- partnerships@theoverseen.org
- Everything else
- hello@theoverseen.org
The Overseen does not publish a street address and does not accept documents by post. Our staff work remotely and meet in New York.
Our stories describe composite cases. The companies named in them are fictional, and every story links to reporting on a real case.