Blog

One year ago today, whistleblower Edward Snowden confirmed that the NSA was secretly engaged in a massive program of warrantless surveillance of the American people. Since then, the ACLU has worked both in the courts and in Congress to halt the agency’s abuses of power and violations of our constitutional rights. But the NSA isn’t the only agency guilty of dragnet surveillance without oversight. S... Read More

As technology advances and it becomes easier to amass consumers’ personal information, these state-driven solutions will be essential to ensuring our privacy is not left behind. Read More

Last week’s decision by a federal appeals court allowing an expensive and multi-year lawsuit to go forward against San Francisco is a reminder of the immense cost—both to civil liberties and the public fisc—that can follow a community’s failure to have a thorough public discussion about surveillance technology and adopt legally enforceable safeguards if it is going to be used. Read More

Exciting news. The White House Big Data Report, Big Data: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values, was released today. While it does not address all of the ACLU’s concerns, the report recognizes the importance of moving forward on several legal and policy areas that have been a focus of our work here in California for several years. Read More

Local law enforcement agencies across the Bay Area have so-called stingray devices, a powerful cellphone surveillance tool, and more are planning to acquire the technology, according to public records recently obtained by Sacramento News10. The devices are highly intrusive and completely unregulated. Read More

The ACLU of Northern California sent this letter urging the Oakland City Council not to approve the Domain Awareness Center (DAC), Phase 2 Contract. The resolution does not reflect the views of City Councilmembers, missing key facts and legal info interfere with meaningful oversight by the Council, and there are concerns with federal access to DAC data under the Patriot Act. Read More

Government agencies from the NSA to local law enforcement have taken advantage of weak protections for “metadata” to build huge databases about ordinary Americans. In response, the ACLU of California today released “Metadata: Piecing Together a Privacy Solution,” a new policy paper that offers a way forward. Read More

We are pleased that following our shareholder advocacy, AT&T has now joined Verizon and released its first transparency report. AT&T’s report shows how large volumes of customer information have been disclosed, typically without a warrant. Read More

Oakland Police Department (OPD) documents obtained by the ACLU of Northern California and released for the first time today reveal an example of OPD officers engaging in unconstitutional selective enforcement based on political ideology, underscoring serious and ongoing concerns about the city’s planned Domain Awareness Center and its potential for abuse. Read More

The ACLU of Northern California today submitted an analysis of the City of Alameda’s draft policies for automated license plate readers (ALPR), which the city will discuss next Monday night at a public forum hosted by the city council. Read More

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California today sent a letter to members of an Oakland City Council committee demanding there be more transparency and oversight over the city’s ongoing plans to build a domain awareness center (DAC) – essentially a central surveillance hub for law enforcement. Read More

We are very pleased that following our shareholder proposal, Verizon released its first transparency report today. Read More