Archive

I’ve worked for Silicon Valley companies for more than a decade and international travel is a necessary part of my job. I’ve had my fair share of delays and missed connections, but one thing I’ve never experienced while traveling in airports is fear. That changed last December when I returned from a business trip to Europe. Going through customs is usually routine for me. I signed up for the Gl... Read More

Last year, California lawmakers passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), a new law to strengthen consumer privacy protections. A few weeks ago, newly-elected Oakland Assemblymember Buffy Wicks introduced AB 1760: Privacy for All, to add critical improvements to current law and ensure privacy is a right we can all exercise in California – and pave the way for other states to do the same –... Read More

SACRAMENTO – New polling released today shows that Californians from all walks of life and all parts of the state support legislation to strengthen consumer privacy protections. Across race, gender, party, and regional lines, 90% of likely California voters want to require companies to do more to protect their personal information. (Read the polling results.) “California voters clearly want inc... Read More

At a time when violence by white supremacists is on the rise, the FBI appears to be targeting Black people in a secret intelligence program concerning so-called “Black Identity Extremists”— an inflammatory term for a group that doesn’t even exist. The bureau’s practice echoes earlier, shameful government surveillance programs that sought to discredit civil rights and Black power activists who were... Read More

NEW YORK — A historic civil rights settlement was announced with Facebook today following a variety of anti-discrimination legal actions. The settlement encompasses sweeping changes that the tech giant will make to its paid advertising platform to prevent discrimination in employment, housing, and credit advertising. Since late 2016, Facebook has faced legal pressure from the American Civil Lib... Read More

The ACLU, along with our client Communications Workers of America and other civil rights groups, announced a historic settlement agreement with Facebook that will result in major changes to Facebook’s advertising platform. Advertisers will no longer be able to exclude users from learning about opportunities for housing, employment, or credit based on gender, age, or other protected characteristics... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO — The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California today released records revealing that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has gained access to an expansive surveillance database to target immigrants. The documents also reveal that local law enforcement agencies are aiding ICE in the surveillance efforts by sharing residents’ location information with ICE agents, some... Read More

UPDATE: The Union City Police Department informed the ACLU that it does not operate license plate cameras and has no license plate detection data to share with ICE. Union City provided a recent sharing report and screenshots showing that ICE is not listed as a sharing partner and that Union City has not contributed “detections” data to the LEARN database. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcemen... Read More

SACRAMENTO - Today the ACLU of California joined a diverse coalition of privacy, civil rights, economic equity, and children’s advocacy organizations to announce support for AB 1760, Privacy for All, a bill introduced by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland). Privacy for All puts Californians in control of the personal information that companies collect and share about them. As the technology ind... Read More

A top Google executive recently sent a shot across the bow of its competitors regarding face surveillance. Kent Walker, the company's general counsel and senior vice president of global affairs, made it clear that Google — unlike Amazon and Microsoft — will not sell a face recognition product until the technology's potential for abuse is addressed. Face recognition, powered by artificial intell... Read More