Archive

A Freedom of Information Act request was filed by the ACLU of Northern California and others seeking records relating to federal government activity in connection to the FBI's investigation of Muslim communities. The groups seek records related to domestic intelligence practices including the use of informants and infiltrators (such as those reportedly used in gyms, community centers and mosques),... Read More

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU-NC) proudly announces that distinguished civil rights attorney Kelli M. Evans has joined the leadership of the organization as Associate Director. Evans' career as a civil rights attorney includes serving as federal court-appointed Monitor of the Oakland Police Department, as a senior trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the... Read More

Good evening. My name is Kelli Evans and I am the new Associate Director of the ACLU of Northern California. I am also a civil rights attorney and have spent a number of years working on police accountability and integrity issues across the country. I want to thank Commissioner DeJesus for inviting me here to speak tonight.Last week I sent Lieutenant Reilly a memorandum prepared by my office for i... Read More

Remember hairspray and side ponytails, walkmen and Atari, stirrup pants and legwarmers? They all made a comeback Wednesday night at the ACLU of Northern California's dotRights "Party Like It's 1986" bash.80s fashion and music like Bon Jovi's 1986 hit "Livin' on a Prayer" underscored just how outdated electronic privacy law is, and that it's high time for better privacy protection.The Electronic Co... Read More

On a crisp Saturday in March 2009, Lily Haskell set out to join a peace rally in San Francisco to oppose the Iraq war. What she didn't know at the time was that by the end of the day, she would be forced to turn a DNA sample over to be placed in a national databank. During the demonstration, Haskell was arrested on suspicion of trying to help another protester held by police–a felony. She was h... Read More

Today, Google and the authors and publishers who sued Google are hoping that United States District Court Judge Denny Chin will approve their settlement and allow Google to launch the world's largest digital library and bookstore combined.While the ACLU strongly supports increased access to books, we have filed an objection to this Settlement on behalf of authors and publisher members of the class... Read More

Groups And Prominent Authors Say Settlement Doesn't Protect Free Speech Or User PrivacyNew York – The American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law are in federal court today urging a judge to reject the proposed settlement in a lawsuit over Google Book Search bec... Read More

Facebook recently announced that it was rolling out tools that would give users more granular control over content posted via third-party applications. More flexible privacy controls are always a welcome step, but this move does not address the privacy flaws with Facebook's third party application platform that are highlighted by our Facebook Privacy Quiz. Please demand that Facebook protect your ... Read More

Google's new Buzz service triggered a wave of criticism last week when it launched with serious privacy holes. While the company has moved to address some of those concerns, CEO Eric Schmidt seems to be missing the point, stating that the problem was that Google "did not understand how to communicate Google Buzz and its privacy. ... There was a lot of confusion when it came out on Tuesday, and peo... Read More

Download the Winter 2010 ACLU-NC Newsletter and read about our latest events and initiatives. Read More