Archive

Our right to speak anonymously, long protected by U.S. courts, is increasingly under attack by corporations and wealthy individuals looking to upend decades of free speech precedent. Read More

We are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether Meta and X have broken their anti-surveillance commitments Read More

Today civil rights organizations sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, urging the agency to investigate whether X (formerly Twitter) and Meta are providing surveillance companies that work with law enforcement special access to user data, contrary to the platforms’ official policies and public promises.  Read More

The 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an opportunity to redouble our commitment to its principles worldwide. For those individuals and organizations whose focus is human rights within the United States, we are called to do two things. First, rather than cede the US Constitution to powerful forces who would use it to turn back the clock, we must embrace a visio... Read More

For years, ACLU of Northern California has built momentum to ban the use of face surveillance by law enforcement. That’s why we put all our muscle behind a campaign to defeat AB 642, a bill that would have normalized real-time, mass surveillance. Read More

Fifty years ago a modern constitutional right to privacy was added to the state constitution. And for the last five decades, that right has helped to safeguard our homes, our families, our bodies, our thoughts, and our associations from invasion by government and corporate interests. Read More

In Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer,’ there is a scene where government agents creep outside a gathering of UC Berkeley-affiliated activists to write down the license plates of those parked outside the event. Instead of learning from this history, the City of Berkeley has taken a step towards repeating it.  Read More

In response to ACLU of Northern California’s Motion to Quash, a pharmaceutical magnate drops subpoena seeking identity of person who critiqued him online. Read More

On June 21, 2023, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California (“ACLU NorCal”) and co-counsel Public Citizen Litigation Group filed a motion to quash on behalf of J. Doe (“Doe”), an anonymous online user who was targeted by a subpoena seeking to unmask their identity after they criticized a wealthy pharmaceutical magnate named Fredric Eshelman.  Eshelman filed an ex parte application in fede... Read More

Seventy-one California police agencies in 22 counties must immediately stop sharing automated license plate reader (ALPR) data with law enforcement agencies in other states. Read More