With the United States’ National Security Agency ‘setting trends’ among the international community for worldwide surveillance and privacy abuses, soon there will be “no safe haven,” a human rights watchdog group warned in their annual report published Tuesday.

“As the world’s information moves into cyberspace, surveillance capabilities have grown commensurately,” writes New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) in their annual World Report (pdf). “The U.S. now leads in ability for global data capture, but other nations and actors are likely to catch up, and some already insist that more data be kept within their reach.”

“As the birthplace of the Internet, home to major related industries, and with most global online communications running through its territory or facilities, the U.S. is uniquely placed to conduct global surveillance,” the report continues.

Further, HRW notes, the United States’ exploitation of constitutional loopholes—particularly those limiting protections for foreigners and regarding the bulk collection of “metadata”—has enabled the broad expansion of surveillance of individuals both domestically and abroad.