Appelbaum has described various aggressive surveillance events, and implies they are related to his work with Wikileaks, to his privacy activism, and to relationships with other privacy activists, notably reporters linked to Edward Snowden.
Appelbaum popsal mnoho sledovacích akcí, které souvisí s WikiLeaks, ochranou soukromí a se vztahy s dalšími aktivisty za ochranu soukromí, zejména s reportéry spojenými s Edwardem Snowdenem.