Bytes and Pieces
A Privacy, Free Speech & Technology Blog
Written by Technology and Civil Liberties Policy Director Nicole Ozer
Votes on re-authorizing key parts of the Patriot Act will happen in Congress any day now. Take action and stop fear-mongering and scare tactics from blocking genuine Patriot Act reforms.
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In a potential Great Leap Forward for the "Surveillance-Industrial Complex,"Google is working on partnering with the NSA. Probably the two biggest collectors of personal communications data in the world teaming up? Details are scarce, but the very concept brings to mind the phrase "marriage made in hell." At a time when some are pushing to increase law enforcement access to Americans' communications, policymakers need to take a hard look at these systems.
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Join us at our ACLU dotRights 80s party. We’ll have a DJ spinning 80s tunes, retro video games, and a “time machine” hair and makeup station to finish off your perfect look!
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In this blog post we’re going to focus on the privacy implications of cloud computing services and why it is so important that you know how and when cloud providers share your personal information with third parties.
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On Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will be in California for the second of its "Exploring Privacy" roundtables. Please join the ACLU-NC in demanding to know more about how and when companies disclose your personal information!
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On Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will be in California for the second of its "Exploring Privacy" roundtables. Please join the ACLU-NC in demanding to know more about how and when companies disclose your personal information!
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Computerworld is reporting that the hacking attack on Google (which prompted it to tell the Chinese government it would no longer censor on its behalf) exploited a system the company set up to help the government access its users' data.
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Back in July 2008, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a new policy (PDF) regarding searches of documents and electronic devices at the border. CBP asserts it has the right to conduct these searches of any traveler — citizens and noncitizen alike "absent individualized suspicion," — meaning no suspicion of wrongdoing is even required to conduct a search. Today we released the first batch of information we got back from the CBP.
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed privacy in an interview last Friday. Did he declare the end of privacy on Facebook?
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On January 5, President Obama addressed airport security in remarks responding to the Christmas Day attack on a plane headed for Detroit.
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What's behavioral advertising and what's the ACLU trying to do about it to better protect your privacy? Learn more about it and read our statement to the House Energy & Commerce Committee.
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The Obama administration, in an August announcement that attracted little public attention, stated that it would continue President Bush’s policy of searching and copying the information on international travelers’ laptops, cameras and cell phones without any suspicion of wrongdoing. If you want to know how much that matters, just think about the personal information you have on those devices. The administration is expected to issue a civil liberties assessment of the policy any day now, but it’s hard to imagine any justification for groundless searches of Americans’ sensitive personal data.
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Responding to public outcry over Wednesday's new privacy settings, Facebook backtracked today, announcing that it would allow users to hide their list of friends from search - but did not allow users to protect friends lists from other Facebook users or applications. Keep pressing Facebook to give you full control over your friends list and all of your information!
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In a move to create stricter privacy guidelines, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the latest version of its grant application today that includes new requirements for video surveillance. It will now be recommended that applicants for DHS grant money perform privacy assessments if grant money is to be used to purchase, install or support cameras. The American Civil Liberties Union praised the new requirement as the first step in pushing back on the proliferation of unchecked video surveillance.
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Facebook has announced several changes to its privacy controls, including a "transition tool" that each of its 350 million current users will be required to use.
While we applaud Facebook for putting privacy front and center, the announced changes not only fail to address existing privacy concerns with third party applications but may actually weaken or discourage user privacy directly. We hope that Facebook will live up to its public promises and give users better tools to control their personal information.
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A Federal Judge ruled that a lawsuit brought by two Bay Area community organizations against federal agents over the seizure of their computers can continue.
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Sprint/Nextel has handled 8 million requests for GPS location information from law enforcement over the past 13 months. Don't let this continue - Demand Your dotRights!
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California policymakers are deciding now whether your sensitive health-care records can be electronically shared.
Take action today to protect your private health records.
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On Wednesday, November 18 the Tiburon, California Town Council approved a license-plate camera surveillance system that will keep track of every vehicle that enters and leaves the city. These cameras are expensive and there is no evidence that they will do anything to make the Tiburon community safer.
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No one should be forced to choose between using the Internet and keeping their personal information from being misused. It's time to demand a privacy upgrade. It's time to Demand our dotRights!
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The Amended Google Book Search Settlement has everything but the kitchen sink...and adequate privacy protections. Google says that the Book Search settlement is not "the right place" to include privacy protections.
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The Amended Google Book Search Settlement, filed with the Court on Friday, November 13, does not resolve the privacy concerns.
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Google Street View is once again in hot water, this time from the Swiss authorities who say the panorama street view pictures violate Swiss privacy law.
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The ACLU Facebook Quiz was featured in a lengthy news story on Fox News in D.C. Check it out!
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Following a lawsuit filed by American Civil Liberties Union, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has revised its policies governing airline passenger screening to make clear that TSA agents are authorized to conduct searches related to safeguarding flight safety, not to engage in general law enforcement. Calling the policy changes a victory for civil liberties, the ACLU has moved to drop its lawsuit, originally filed in June on behalf of a traveler who was illegally detained and harassed by TSA agents at the airport after they discovered he was carrying approximately $4,700 in cash.
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The ACLU released the Enforcing Privacy Report, which cautions that American privacy and values cannot be adequately protected without designated oversight bodies. The United States lags behind other democracies in implementing this necessary protection.
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The ACLU Facebook Quiz and its developer, Technology and Civil Liberties Fellow Chris Conley, were recently featured on NPR’s radio show, All Things Considered.
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The Technology & Civil Liberties Program is pleased to welcome Tamar Gubins and Hari O'Connell, who will be working with the Program as Volunteer Attorneys for the next year!
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The ACLU submitted a statement to the House Judiciary Committee today for today’s hearing on Google Book Search.
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A coalition of authors and publishers – including best-sellers Michael Chabon and Jonathan Lethem, as well as leading security author Bruce Schneier – is urging a federal judge to reject the proposed settlement in a lawsuit over Google Book Search, arguing that the sweeping agreement to digitize millions of books ignores critical privacy and speech rights for readers and writers.
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A coalition of authors and publishers, represented by ACLU, EFF, and the Samuelson Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law, filed an objection this morning in the Google Book Search case. We need your help to protect reader privacy. Write Google CEO Eric Schmidt and tell him that you won’t pay for digital books with your privacy!
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Google just released a privacy policy for its proposed Google Books services. While this policy has some welcome features, it does not go far enough to ensure that reader privacy will be well-protected.
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The ACLU of Northern California and other ACLU affiliates are pitching session ideas for SXSW 2010. Help us build a movement for online privacy by voting for our panels! [registration required]
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Facebook has announced plans to improve its privacy controls and practices. Keep up the pressure and tell them to do even more to give you control of your own information!
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Facebook's default privacy settings allow quizzes and other applications to peer into your profile - even if it's your friend, and not you, who takes the quiz! To learn more, check out our very own Facebook quiz!
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What you choose to read says a lot about who you are, what you value, and what you believe. That's why the ACLU has fought alongside libraries and bookstores time and again to defend the privacy rights of readers. Now we need your help to protect reader privacy rights in the digital era.
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"Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said [Wednesday] that Real ID was 'DOA'. That's 'Dead On Arrival' for the tiny percentage of you out there who don't watch a lot of cop shows on TV. But the real question is: If Real ID is dead, why is everybody working so hard to bring it back to life?"
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The new PASS ID Bill, while touted as a repeal of the Real ID Act of 2005, has revived provisions of Real ID that threaten the privacy of Americans. Take action and encourage your congressperson to oppose PASS ID in order to protect your privacy.
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Facebook quizzes may seem like a harmless way to spend a few minutes. But do you really know how much these quizzes are learning about you and how that info could be used? Take our quiz and learn more!
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After hearing from concerned citizens, a California Senate subcommittee rejected the DMV's attempt to include facial recognition scans through a budgetary request.
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A big thumbs up to the San Jose City Council for standing up for free speech and against censorship on Tuesday night and voting against the installation of internet blocking software on library computers.
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If you live or work in San José, please stand up for free speech by attending the San José City Council meeting on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 7:00 PM in the City Council Chambers. Join us in supporting access to essential information and opposing plans to impose Internet content blocking in San José libraries!
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AT&T recently released FamilyMap, an application that allows customers with "Family Plans" to track the location of other phones on the same plan. But in order to use it, you have to "expressly agree that You have no expectation of privacy when using AT&T FamilyMap as it relates to Your location."
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Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society is hosting a panel event this coming Tuesday, April 7, from 5-7:30 p.m. about the ACLU-NC's new document, Privacy and Free Speech: It's Good for Business. The event is free and open to the public and a limited number of individuals may also attend via webcast.
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Privacy and Free Speech: Its Good for Business, released today by the ACLU of Northern California, is a first-of-its-kind publication offering hands-on tips for how businesses can build their reputationswhile saving time and moneyby properly protecting customers privacy and free speech. The publication is based on dozens of case studies analyzing what prominent companies like Google, Yahoo!, Qwest, ChoicePoint, Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T have done rightand wrong in safeguarding users.
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If you live or work in San Jose, please speak up for free speech and say no to library internet censorship!
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A few weeks ago, Facebook made a small change to its Terms of Use with potentially major privacy ramifications. When users cried out, however, they reversed course and reinstated previous protections.
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Thousands of faxes and emails from concerned citizens like you were critical in stopping the DMV from getting quick authorization to embed face scans and fingerprints into our drivers' licenses.
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January 28th is Data Privacy Day. Don't just learn how to protect yourself online - learn how you can change the way companies protect you.
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The ACLU's Chris Hansen talks about online content filtering, how it works, and when it doesn't.
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The Child Online Protection Act, a well-meaning but thoroughly flawed law that severely hindered free speech without substantially protecting children, is officially dead after the Supreme Court refused to hear the Justice Department's final appeal.
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After federal and local law enforcement agents seized computers used by two San Francisco Bay Area community organizations, the ACLU of Northern California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed suit to protect the organizations' privacy and free speech rights.
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A report released today evaluating San Franciscos surveillance cameras concludes that the cameras have failed in their mission of reducing violent crime in the city.
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"Private modes" built into recently-released Web browsers protect you if someone else uses your computer - but do they protect your privacy from online observers?
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When you sign up for a channel on YouTube, the site automatically - and silently - adds your name to a public list of "subscribers." Shouldn't you choose whether or not to publish information about what you choose to see?
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The ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation uncovered documents revealing that law enforcement officials have begun using new devices to track cell phone users without judicial oversight and without even informing and working with phone companies.
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The next edition of Microsoft Windows threatens to give location information to applications without your knowledge or consent. Here's why you should be concerned.
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Google is using search data to track flu outbreaks. This may be an admirable goal, but it shows a startling sense of ownership over your queries - you, not Google, should choose how your queries are used.
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With the Geode extension, your Firefox browser can determine where you are. Here are some ways to keep that information out of the wrong hands.
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Who's watching where you're going, and why.
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The University of Washington and RSA today released a report on the significant privacy and security vulnerabilities of RFID-embedded Enhanced Drivers' Licenses and Passport cards.
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A broad coalition of public interest groups released two letters today calling on television networks and YouTube to protect online political speech in the final days of this election.
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Congress and the Bush White House overstepped their constitutional authority and violated the rights of millions of customers when they passed and approved legislation granting sweeping immunity to telecoms that collaborated in illegal spying.
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A DHS-sponsored report concludes that data mining to identify potential terrorists simply does not work.
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Opt out of Chrome's new features that collect massive amounts of user data.
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Governor Schwarzenegger took an important first step to protect the privacy, personal safety, and financial security of millions of Californians by signing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) anti-skimming legislation into law this week.
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Fight library censorship and celebrate the freedom to read.
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Federal legislation has been introduced to safeguard the privacy rights of Americans and stop personal belongings such as laptops, cell phones, and digital cameras being searched without probable cause.
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Previously weve discussed the push to search under travellers clothes with the naked machine and the million names on the terrorist watch list. The latest Civil Discourse comic examines DHSs need to literally put their hands in your pockets.
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The ACLU of Northern California is pleased to welcome its new Technology and Civil Liberties Fellow, Chris Conley.
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Right now, two bills authored by State Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) that would help protect the privacy of you and your family are on the governors desk. Please send a letter to the governor urging him to sign the bills.
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In an important victory for privacy rights, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday reinstated a portion of California's landmark financial privacy law that allows consumers to prevent banks from sharing information with affiliated companies about a customer's savings account or buying habits.
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No matter where you stand on the candidates or the issues, we should all agree on one principle: No Downtime for Online Free Speech!
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The Federal Communications Commission chastised Comcast for throttling peer-to-peer applications, calling the practice unreasonable and ordering Comcast to change its network management policies.
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If you travel outside the United States, you can kiss your right to privacy, and perhaps your laptop, digital camera and cell phone, goodbye.
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In a clear victory for free speech, a federal court again says that the ACLU is right and that COPA is unconstitutional.
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Researcher Nate Lawson has discovered that FasTrak transponders are vulnerable to sniffing, cloning, and surreptitious tracking of a drivers comings and goings.
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Dutch Chipmaker NXP is trying to prevent researchers from publishing a scientific paper showing how the RFID chips used in Dutch travel cards can be copied and cloned.
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Members of Congress, war heroes and other law-abiding Americans with names like Robert Johnson and Gary Smith have become like poor Mr. Buttle in the movie, Brazil, trapped in an ineffective system riddled with errors that claims to be making things safer.
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President Bush signed into law the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, at 1:15 p.m. this afternoon in the Rose Garden. Immediately after he signed, the ACLU sued.
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Chief Judge Vaughn Walker of the Northern District of California issued a ruling blasting arguments made by supporters of telecom immunity.
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The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit today urging a federal court to order the Department of Justice to turn over records related to the government's use of people's cell phones as tracking devices.
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In a victory for civil liberties and responsible government spending, the Budget Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to cut $300,000 from its invasive, intrusive, and ineffective video surveillance camera program.
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In a recent victory for employee privacy and free speech, the Ninth Circuit told employers to stop snooping on email and text messages.
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The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) set off a minor firestorm in the blogosphere over its new ID policy, which went into effect this past Saturday. At least one passenger has reported that he was asked which political party he is registered to vote for, as part of TSA's new authentication process.
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The effort by telecom lobbyists to steamroll retroactive immunity is being met with stiff resistance by a broad coalition of activist groups.
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Can video surveillance become more privacy friendly by using technology to blur faces?
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A US Appeals Court judge has been thrust into the media spotlight after his own private collection of photographs and videos was accidentally made available on the Internet.
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RFID Anti-Skimming bill overwhelmingly passed the California Assembly Judiciary Committee on yesterday by a vote of 10-0.
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What do your cell phone and the prosecution of CIA agents in an Italian court for the 2003 kidnapping of Muslim cleric Abu Omar have to do with each other? Location information and data privacy.
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Your photos are likely the next frontier in targeted advertising.
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Charter Communications, one of the nation's largest cable Internet providers, plans to begin monitoring the online activities of its high-speed Internet customers and then sell the data for targeted advertising.
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A coalition of privacy and consumer organizations have sent a letter today urging Google to post a prominent link on its homepage to its privacy policy in accordance with the California Online Privacy Protection Act and the widespread practice of commercial web sites.
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Issues of free speech, censorship, and harassment took center stage last week at Twitter.
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The blogosphere has been bubbling over the past few weeks over the subject of laptop searches and seizures at international borders.
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A prosecutorial theory in a emotionally charged case against a MySpace bully threatens to have serious repercussions for online speech and anonymity.
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The ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation can today reveal their participation in months-long fight with the FBI over free speech and government imposed secrecy.
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In response to a letter from the ACLU of Northern California, the Linden Unified School District will not be reading private text messages stored on students cell phones unless there is good reason to believe that the search will show that a law or school rule was violated. The Districts new policy also limits the scope of the search to the alleged infraction leading to the seizure of a cell phone.
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Don't miss the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference on May 20-23, 2008 at the Omni Hotel in New Haven, Connecticut.
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The Sacramento Library Board will be debating its internet use policy tomorrow afternoon.
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Is the federal government gearing up to spy on Internet users who visit .gov websites? That was one of the concerns at a hearing on the Department of Homeland Securitys (DHS) cybersecurity program called EINSTEIN.
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The ACLU Washington Legislative Office, the Technology and Liberty Program, and the ACLU of Northern California submitted written comments to the FCC on net neutrality today.
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Last week, a coalition of consumer and public-interest groups in the U.S. and Europe presented a resolution to U.S. government representatives that called for policies to promote net neutrality on the Internet.
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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is holding a hearing on internet freedom and net neutrality in Palo Alto next Thursday, April 17. With the future of the internet at stake, it is absolutely critical that those who support freedom of expression show up in force.
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San Jose and Sacramento are currently debating whether to censor access to internet information at their libraries. The internet has become a pivotal means of accessing information at the library and with its growth in importance, the age-old issues of library censorship have followed.
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Bush Administration appeal of important case striking down two search and seizure provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act as unconstitutional will be heard by the Ninth Circuit.
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Today was a really good day for the First Amendment. And it was also a good day for our court system.
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The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Northern California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) last night filed a motion to intervene in the Wikileaks case on behalf of organizations and individuals that have accessed and used documents on the Wikileaks.org website in their work and want to continue to be able to do so.
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Are social networking and privacy mutually exclusive? We think not ...
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The Stanford Technology Law Review recently published Rights "Chipped" Away: RFID in Identification Documents.
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The ACLU has released its scorecard on the final REAL ID regulations.
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SB 31, an RFID Anti-Skimming Bill, overwhelmingly passed the California State Senate 36-3 last week.
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TSA has launched a blog that is open to moderated comments.
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The ACLU released the following statement as a response to todays Washington Post article about the DHS Secretary's plans to defy Congressional extensions and attempt to implement the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) now.
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The ACLU of Northern California is pleased to offer a new two-year (September 2008- September 2010) Technology and Civil Liberties Fellowship to help develop legal and policy papers about emerging technologies and implement an innovative campaign to educate consumers of all ages, policymakers, and businesspeople about privacy and free speech rights.
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A recent blog post discussed privacy concerns with the new Bay Area TransLink transit card.
The Dutch RFID transit pass produced by TransLink was recently cracked and cloned.
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At the Consumer Electronics Show last week, top media giant executives announced that ISPs may be ready to start filtering for copyrighted content at the network level. But, checking for copyright violations at the network level may end up meaning a lot more high-level snooping at many other types of content as well
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Congressional leaders from throughout the nation released statements expressing their dissatisfaction with the Real ID regulations released today by the Department of Homeland Security.
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The Real ID regulations released today do not resolve any of the fundamental threats the law poses to Californias privacy, freedoms and pocketbooks, but just kick the problems farther down the road.
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The Bay Areas transit systems are about to join other cities and get a single payment card. The TransLink card will let you pay for rides on BART, San Francisco Muni buses, and the Peninsula's Caltrain. But, unless you buy the card in cash, TransLink will have a record of who you are, where you go, and when you go there.
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The future of municipal WiFi seems to be fading further. A new study by the New America Foundation examines why Philadelphia's system, now three-fourths completed, seems to be falling flat, why it's happening, and lessons learned for other cities.
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A new online search tool, AskEraser, could be a good step towards empowering consumers to protect their privacy online.
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Google is planning to offer online data storage to its users. While storing documents online can provide benefits, it can also cause all sorts of problems you might not see coming.
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Wake up early on Monday morning and make sure your Senators know that you do not support warrantless wiretapping and immunity for the telephone companies.
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The American Civil Liberties Union today released a new report outlining serious concerns about new institutions called fusion centers. The "anti-terrorism intelligence" being collected in these databases includes an immense amount of information about the daily lives of Americans and many of these fusion centers are operating with little oversight, boundary-setting, or checks and balances.
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The ACLU of Northern California has filed a friend-ofthe-court brief in support of neither party in Fair Housing Council v. Roommate.com, a case raising important anti-discrimination and internet free speech concerns that will be heard by an expanded panel of the Ninth Circuit tomorrow.
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The amount of controversy surrounding Facebooks intrusive Beacon advertising program continues to grow. The San Jose Mercury News published an editorial criticizing Facebook and the program and calling on Congress and other policy-makers to get up to speed on whats happening and decide if stronger protections are needed to protect consumers online.
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This past Thursday morning ACLU Legislative Director Caroline Fredrickson participated in an online chat on Firedoglake about the ongoing FISA fight and upcoming Senate floor debate.
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The American Civil Liberties Union filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request yesterday with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to learn the details of the governments use of cell phones as tracking devices. The request follows on the heels of revelations that federal officials are using Americans' cell phones to pinpoint their location, sometimes without any court oversight.
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In response to pressure from privacy advocates and an online petition signed by 55,000 of its members, Facebook has changed its invasive ad system we blogged about yesterday. Facebooks new ad system silently collects information on the things you do on dozens of major websites and distills those actions down into ads they show to your friends.
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In August we blogged about privacy problems on the social networking site, Facebook, and its plans to unveil a new targeted advertising system. The system is now up and running. It not only analyzes your activity on Facebook, but also monitors your other Internet activities and reports them back to your Facebook friends in the form of advertisements.
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A recent ballot initiative asked San Franciscans to decide whether they want a citywide municipal WiFi network. Almost two thirds of the city voted yes on measure J, the City-Wide Wireless & Internet Network initiative, but they are unlikely to get their wish any time soon. EarthLink, the internet service provider that had planned to partner with San Francisco to provide free and low cost Internet access, has concluded that municipal WiFi networks are not going to be profitable in the near future.
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The DHS Privacy Office has announced a public workshop on video surveillance- December 17 and 18th in Arlington, Virginia. The workshop will provide a forum to discuss the impact on privacy and civil liberties of CCTV and begin to inform the development of best practices for the use of CCTV by government agencies.
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Ranking members of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust are asking the FTC to review Google's desired merger with DoubleClick with a fine- toothed comb. This fall, Google was ranked the worst major Internet company in terms of consumer privacy. Will Google's September endorsement of the APEC international privacy standards make a difference?
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What happens when you mix political speech, clips of The Daily Show and self-styled YouTube video blogs? Last spring Allen Asch found out first hand when Viacom sent him takedown notices for copyright infringement.
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Yahoo! executives faced harsh criticism this week from the House Foreign Affairs Committee for the company's role in the Chinese government's arrest of journalist and democracy advocate Shi Tao.
Although stories like Shi Taos may seem remote and unrelated to American Internet users, they illustrate that who you are, what you do, and what you say on the Internet often does not stay with the company when the government comes knocking.
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At the request of State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), the California Research Bureau has established the eleven person Radio-Frequency Identification Document Advisory Panel. The Panel will hold meetings on RFID and help the CRB issue a final report on the technology.
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Last week several public interest groups finalized a set of fair use guidelines for user-generated content. With the rise of YouTube and other video-sharing sites, the phenomenon of UGC has exploded, and, with it, ambiguity over what constitutes fair use has also grown.
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Todays news story that Comcast is blocking customer use of peer-to-peer program, BitTorrent, provides yet another glimpse into a future without net neutrality.
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On September 27, we blogged about Verizons attempt to discriminate based on content when it announced that it would block the text messages of NARAL. Whether or not companies will be able to function as a bottleneck on protected speech is at the heart of the debate over net neutrality.
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In late September, US District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the PATRIOT Acts changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) violated the 4th Amendments prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures.
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Governor Schwarzenegger has signed California Senate Bill 362 (Simitian D-Palo Alto) which would prohibit employers and others from forcing anyone to have a radio frequency identification (RFID) device implanted under their skin.
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Last November we learned that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been secretly compiling data on millions of innocent Americans through its Automated Tracking System. Recently they proposed federal rules that would continue the controversial program. In response, the ACLU has filed comments with the DHS urging that the program be scrapped because it violates not only federal law but the privacy of all Americans traveling internationally.
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Over the last week, Americans in places as far as upstate New York and as nearby as downtown San Francisco have noticed ads for Googles experimental service, Google 411. Google 411 allows users to call a 1-800 number to get local business information for no fee.
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As expected, the government is appealing the ACLU's March 2007 victory in the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) case. COPA is an Internet censorship law that makes it a crime to place content deemed "harmful to minors" on the Web unless the content is behind a credit card or age verification screen. Our victory capped off more than eight years of litigation, including two trips to the Supreme Court. The ACLU won at every stage.
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A controversial new program to use spy satellites for domestic surveillance has been postponed due to concerns brought to the attention of Congress by the ACLU and other civil liberties groups.
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A post by Michael German, Policy Counsel on national security, immigration and privacy explaining how some of the Director of National Intelligence's public statements in support of warrantless wiretaps distort reality, the issues, and the law.
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The federal Real ID Act doesnt have many friends these days. Eighteen states have passed legislation rejecting the law and Congress has refused to put any money into implementing it. But, companies that stand to profit significantly from a massive national ID and database system are trying to use their pull to convince Congress to fund this privacy and security nightmare.
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According to a recent study by the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CIAA), the fair use doctrine in copyright law not only facilitates criticism, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research, but fair use-related industries add $2.2 trillion dollars to the United States economy each year in the process.
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If you want to see what the Internet will look like in a few years without net neutrality, you need look no further than this week's stories about Verizon Wireless' attempts to censor messages on its text-message network. Today the telecommunications giant reversed a decision it made last week to reject NARAL Pro-Choice America's request to make a text-message advocacy campaign available on Verizon networks.
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Signing up with one company for multiple goods or services or just visiting one store or internet site to buy everything for your home often seems like a good idea. But, as you buy more things from fewer companies, they are not just pocketing more of your money, but they may also be collecting a lot more of your personal information.
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Figures released last week by the London Assembly of Liberal Democrats suggest that Londons video surveillance network, totaling over 10,500 cameras in all, does not help solve crimes.
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The Pentagons decision to shut down its much maligned TALON program is a good thing, but threats to civil liberties remain in the form of fusion centers and government intelligence databases.
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ACLU victory- A federal court today struck down the amended Patriot Act's National Security Letter (NSL) provision as unconstitutional.
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Earlier this week, the Federal Election Commission ruled in support of freedom of speech for bloggers when it dismissed complaints against the DailyKos and a blog site critical of former Representative Mary Bono.
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Judge Walker of the Northern District of California heard arguments yesterday on the ACLUs of California case against Verizon for allegedly providing the NSA with California customers' phone records without their consent and without legal process.
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Facebook has felt private to people. But, of course, it isnt. Once you put your information up on Facebook, you do not know where it will end up or how it could be used.
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Google has made it easier to request take-down of Street View images, but unfortunately, has not made the interface for initiating the process any more intuitive.
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The ACLU affiliates of California released a report today detailing the expansion of video surveillance in California.
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The public overflowed the courtroom and late-comers filed into an adjoining video room, members of the press hovered around the courthouse, and oral argument lasted an hour and forty five minutes- that was the scene yesterday afternoon as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard the governments appeal in Hepting v. AT&T.
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The outcome in the lawsuit Hepting v. AT&T, being heard today by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, will be important to the various challenges to illegal spying of Americans.
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EarthLink announces halt on new municipal wireless build-outs- San Francisco plan may be delayed.
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The ACLU today applauded the failure of an amendment offered to the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill that would have authorized $300 million of federal funding for states to implement the Real ID drivers license program, which has been estimated by DHS to cost $23.1 billion.
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The privacy and security concerns associated with the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is in the news again.
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Want to know why the new San Francisco municipal wireless contract needs to include privacy and free speech protections? Read "Make free wi-fi truly free", the opinion piece published in today's SF Chronicle.
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The Supervisor's Budget Committee has delayed voting on the Earthlink/Google municipal wireless contract until July 25 to allow for further negotiations on the contract, including the privacy provisions.
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The San Francisco Board of Supervisors Budget Committee will be voting this Wednesday about whether to approve the Earthlink/Google municipal wireless contract. The contract needs to be modified in order to properly protect privacy and free speech.
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Sixth Circuit dismisses the ACLU v. NSA case for lack of standing- more important than ever that Congress hold hearings on the warrantless wiretapping program to get out the truth and stop any illegal activities.
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The Senate Judiciary Committee has taken action to finally get out the truth about the administrations domestic spying program. Subpoenas have been issued to the White House and the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.
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Your calls about the Real ID Amendments made a real difference.
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A provision inserted into the major immigration reform bill would effectively force every American to present a standardized national ID in order to get a job and establish a huge "employment verification" system filled with Americans' personal information. Urge Senators Boxer and Feinstein to vote for two amendments to fix these problems with the immigration bill.
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An amicus (friend of the court) brief written by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, National ACLU, ACLU of Ohio, and the Center for Democracy and Technology, was influential in a recent decision ruling that the government cannot secretly seize emails without a warrant.
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The California Assembly Judiciary Committee passed five important RFID bills today, including the Identity Information Protection Act (SB 30), which ensures that no RFID tags will be embedded into state-issued IDs, without privacy and security protections.
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A new Reporter's Shield Law, the Free Flow of Information Act, has been introduced in Congress. The proposed legislation would protect a broader group of people than earlier versions- anyone engaged in journalism, which is defined as "gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting or publishing of news or information that concerns local, national or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public."
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An update to an earlier blog posting about the new Google map Street View feature. In addition to the core privacy issues discussed earlier, it turns out that the process for requesting removal of photos that present privacy and security concerns is quite difficult.
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Googles new Street View service may help some people get around, but it raises serious privacy concerns for individuals who are unwittingly captured by Googles candid cameras.
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New Facebook capabilities may spread your personal informationto more parties. Check and update your Privacy Settings.
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The Identity Information Protection Act (SB 30), the first bill in the country to require privacy and security protections for the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags in state government-issued ID's passed the California State Senate this morning with a strong bipartisan vote of 33-2.
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Earlier this week, the U.S. military ordered troops to stop posting to blogs and sending personal emails without getting clearance.
Now, the Defense Department is claiming that barring military troops from using social networking, video sharing, and other recreational sites such as YouTube and MySpace on military computers is purely an attempt to preserve bandwidth for operational missions.
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Some academics and scientists are turning technology on its head, developing technical solutions that help to enhance users privacy.
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WHEN: Monday, May 14, 2007
TIME: 2:00pm (approximate start time)
WHERE: City Hall, Board Chamber, room 250, Budget and Finance Committee
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While other states are courageously standing up to Congress' misguided national ID mandate, California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is simply passing the buck.
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Police in Clermont County, Ohio, have started using a handheld scanner to swipe the magnetic strip of state-issued ID cards, passports, and drivers licenses and match someones identity against 140 wanted or watch lists, ones from the Drug Enforcement Agency and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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ACLU of Northern California wrote an amicus brief on Josh Wolfs behalf in both the District Court and Ninth Circuit, contesting the governments argument that a journalist cannot invoke a First Amendment privilege when presented with a grand jury subpoena.
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Remember in the movie, Minority Report, when the characters walked by a billboard and it changed to target the advertisement to that particular person or walked into a store and over the loudspeaker, it welcomed them and asked how they liked those pair of pants that had been purchased? That future is starting to become a reality with the use of RFID tags in products and not without serious privacy and security concerns.
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We won ACLU v. Gonzales, our longstanding challenge to stop a law that would suppress constitutionally protected speech on the Internet!
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Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) also thinks Real ID is a real problem.
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The ACLU-NC has been very active in highlighting the need for privacy and free speech safeguards in municipal wireless programs. Cities should not be deploying wireless networks that track who we are, what we are looking at, and where we are looking at it from. Once that information is collected, who knows where it will end up or how it will be used or abused?
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Google will begin removing ½ to ¼ of each IP address after 18 months to 2 years to anonymize the data. The government has been asking ISPs to hold data for a year or more.
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The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, today, called on lawmakers to push for a major overhaul of the Real ID Act, calling it a real nightmare for Californians. The Department of Homeland Securitys recently proposed delay for implementing the act would do nothing to prevent a national identity card system that violates personal privacy and increases identity theft, all while creating bigger bureaucratic messes, longer lines, and higher fees at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
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HID Global Corporation has threatened to sue IO Active, a computer security company based in Seattle, with patent infringement if it gives its planned presentation at the BlackHat Convention this Wednesday, February 28, 2007, in Washington D.C. The presentation discusses vulnerabilities of HID RFID cards and demonstrates a handheld RFID cloner developed by the company to highlight these vulnerabilities.
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On Wednesday, February 7th, 2007, we will present an analysis of the final Earthlink/Google contract and its implications on privacy and free speech to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
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On Wednesday, January 31st, the Montana House passed an anti-REAL ID bill on a vote of 99-1. The bill is expected to head to the Senate next week.
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Maine Becomes First State to Reject Flawed Real ID Act-Momentum growing against Real ID Act! For more information about the Maine resolution rejecting Real ID, and more information about the Real ID Act, RFID, and the Identity Information Act ...
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The San Francisco Police Commission may not approve surveillance cameras unless it finds that the potential for deterrence outweighs community concerns. The San Francisco Police Commission approved 25 new surveillance cameras around the city despite the fact that there was no evidence for the potential for deterrence and dozens of people came to the Police Commission meeting to voice their opposition...
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Privacy is definitely back on the National agenda. In case you missed some of these stories, here is a little run-down on recent activities in Washington...
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San Francisco just announced it has finalized its contract with Earthlink/Google...
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The Police Commission is about to decide whether to install 25 new surveillance cameras in locations around San Francisco, including multiple cameras at 24th and Mission and 16th and Mission...
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On Wednesday, November 15, the San Francisco Police Commission voted to expand the City's video surveillance program to an additional six locations. The Commission approved the expansion over objections raised by ACLU-NC regarding inadequate notice to the community, privacy concerns, and the failure of the City to provide any evidence that cameras are an effective deterrent, as required by San Francisco Administrative Code.
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While studies from around the world show that video surveillance is not effective in preventing or reducing violent crime, another Northern California city is moving to install cameras. The City of Sacramento Police announced yesterday that it was starting a pilot program to install public video surveillance- claiming it will help make the community safer.
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Senator Joe Simitian introduced four RFID bills into the California legislature.
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Video Surveillance, NSA Call Records Lawsuit, Free Speech and the Internet, and more...
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Very disappointing news- despite strong support from up and down the state and across the aisle and thousands of letters sent by constituents, the Governor vetoed the RFID bill.
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Welcome to Bytes and Pieces, the new blog for the Technology and Civil Liberties Program.
I hope that you will be a frequent visitor to this spot to keep up to date on all the latest news and activities on privacy, free speech, and new technology and share your thoughts on current projects and emerging issues.
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