Archive

On November 26, 2007, the FBI served a National Security Letter (NSL) on the Internet Archive, a digital library. The letter sought personal information about one of the Archive's users, including the individual's name, address, and any electronic communication transactional records pertaining to the user. The NSL also included a gag order, prohibiting the Archive and its counsel from revealing th... Read More

In response to a letter from the ACLU of Northern California, the Linden Unified School District will not read 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 District's new policy also limits the scope of the search to the alleged infraction leading to the seizure of a cell phone. Read More

The Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference is on May 20-23, 2008 at the Omni Hotel in New Haven, Connecticut. Early Bird Registration is open until this Friday, May 2.This year, the 18th annual Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference is focusing on those issues at the forefront of technology policy this election year. In the areas of privacy, intellectual property, cybersecurity, telecommun... Read More

Tomorrow, Thursday, April 24, the Sacramento Library Board will be debating its internet use policy, which directs library staff to ask Internet users to "end a search or change a screen" if the content they are viewing is deemed to interfere with the "a safe, welcoming and comfortable environment."The effect is like allowing one library patron to snatch a book out of another person's hands just b... Read More

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 Security's (DHS) cybersecurity program called "EINSTEIN".The goal of EINSTEIN is to track and detect attacks on federal networks, whether those attacks are meant to disable network nodes, or actually penetrate and steal information. The prog... Read More

The ACLU Washington Legislative Office, the Technology and Liberty Program, and the ACLU of Northern California submitted written comments on net neutrality today to the Federal Communications Commission in preparation for this Thursday's public hearing at Stanford.Click here to read the comments.We will also be at the meeting to submit oral testimony.We hope that you will join us at the event and... Read More

In response to a March 3, 2007, letter from the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, the Linden Unified School District has agreed not to read private text messages stored on students’ cell phones unless there is good reason to believe that the search will provide evidence that the student was violating the law or breaking a school rule. The district’s new policy also limits the scope of the ... Read More

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.The Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue [TACD] has some 65 members, including the ACLU, Public Knowledge, the European Public Health Alliance and the European Consumers Organization.In order to... Read More

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.Your comments in person will send a strong message to Washington that Americans will not tolerate private corporate Internet gat... Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California has serious concerns about the city's decision to change the route of the Olympic torch relay in an apparent attempt to avoid protestors. On April 10, the day after relay, we filed a request under the Sunshine Ordinance for records on the city's relay route planning and crowd control policies.Leading up to the torch relay, we worked to guarantee that... Read More