Blog

Today, the ACLU of Northern California filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Justice to find out more about the federal government's use of a sophisticated surveillance tool used to track people's cell phones and commonly known as a "stingray."Stingrays are highly intrusive and indiscriminate. To locate a suspect's cell phone, Stingrays mimic a cell tower and obtain ... Read More

You may not be familiar with companies like Datalogix or Acxiom, but you can bet they're familiar with you. These companies and other "data brokers" operate behind the scenes, collecting and selling information about almost every American household including employment history, recent purchases, and more. But while these companies are happy to sell and share your personal information with other co... Read More

Earlier today, state law enforcement officials sent a letter to Google re-emphasizing the importance of transparency and user control. We're glad to see more voices joining the call. The letter expresses concern about Google's 2012 decision to merge data from all of its services into a single collection. Read More

Late last month, the ACLU of Northern California broke the news that California utilities were turning over the smart meter data of large numbers of customers to third parties—with San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) alone handing over the records of 4,062 customers in a single year. Based on SDG&E's responses to follow-up questions from the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC), we have ... Read More

A small silver lining to the PRISM scandal is that it has created the impetus for several large technology companies to finally start giving the public a glimpse into how the government is regularly dipping into their treasure trove of personal information. You may want to check out our handy new chart for a quick rundown of what's been said and done by which companies- from statements, to transpa... Read More

Amid recent revelations that the NSA has been secretly spying on phone records and the Internet activity of people in the United States, transparency reports filed by the California utilities companies and obtained by the ACLU of California show that a significant amount of data about the energy use of Californians is also ending up in the hands of third parties. In 2012, a single California utili... Read More

Today, we sent a letter to the Alameda County Sheriff asking him whether he plans to pursue his earlier-announced plans to acquire a drone. Budget documents we obtained through a Public Records Act request suggest that he is not planning to acquire a drone in Fiscal Year 2013-14. But a conclusive answer from his office would provide the public with the clarity and transparency it deserves.Last Dec... Read More

The ACLU of California has joined 85 other leading privacy groups, academic institutions, and businesses to call on Congress to take immediate action to halt the secret spying by the National Security Agency (NSA) on phone records and Internet activity of people in the United States and provide a full public accounting of the NSA's and the FBI's data collection programs. See letter below and take ... Read More

In light of recent revelations that the Department of Justice secretly requested the telephone records of Associated Press (AP) journalists, we started thinking about newer calling services, like Google Voice. We know that some journalists also use these services. Are these records vulnerable too?Google Voice can be handy, allowing people on the move like journalists to send and receive calls or t... Read More

Today, a federal district judge in Arizona issued a very disappointing decision concerning the government's obligations to be candid with courts about new technologies they are seeking a warrant to use. The ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed an amicus brief arguing that when the government wants to use invasive surveillance technology, it has an obligation to explain to the court ba... Read More

Assemblymember Bonnie Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) announced this morning that the California Right to Know Act (AB 1291) will not be voted on this year but she will keep working to pass it next year.It's no secret that tech industry groups have been trying to use their political muscle to trample the Right to Know Act. The fact that companies are lobbying so hard to keep us in the dark about what's r... Read More

Tonight, the Redding City Council will consider whether to put the City on the path toward becoming a drone testing site. The ACLU of Northern California has urged the City Council not to approval the proposal at this juncture. (You can read our letter to the City Council here.) The proposal currently before the City Council is nothing more than a blank check. It offers the community no assurances... Read More