Blog
We can be pretty sure that each new day will bring two things: new threats to our civil liberties, and new stories of people standing up for their rights and winning. Behind every court ruling is a person. Behind every landmark law is a movement. Read the stories and hear the voices that ground our work.
Victory for Privacy Rights in California
Sep 11, 2015
It was a really good week in California for privacy rights. The legislature passed the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (CalECPA SB 178) with strong bipartisan support. The bill is now on Gov. Brown’s desk, and he needs to hear from all of us that it’s time to update privacy law for the modern digital world and sign CalECPA into law.
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ACLU Suit Shows the DOJ Gathered Location Data Without Probable Cause
Aug 26, 2015
After three years of litigation, we’ve finally settled a portion of one of our long-running Freedom of Information Act suits against the federal government for information about its location tracking practices. A person’s digital location information reveals detailed, private information that the government should only be able to get through a warrant based on probable cause. As part o...
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San Jose's New Surveillance Proposal is Garbage
Aug 21, 2015
What if once a week the police drove by your home and took a picture?That is what the San Jose City Council proposed last week with an effort to install automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) on garbage trucks.ALPRs are high-speed cameras that sit atop patrol cars or on roadsides and are capable of snapping photos of thousands of license plate numbers per hour, including their location. This tech...
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Those "Personal" Email Accounts? If it's Official Business, it's a Public Record
Aug 11, 2015
Public-records laws are designed to ensure that constituents and journalists have access to information on public affairs. They protect a bedrock value of our democracy: transparency.
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Surveillance Technology: It's Not Just About Snowden
Aug 07, 2015
For communities of color, surveillance isn't just an invasion of personal privacy, it’s a tool for high tech racial profiling that can have disastrous and fatal consequences.
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California Federal Judge to Government: Get a Warrant for Cell Phone Location Data
Jul 30, 2015
A federal district court held that the government must obtain a warrant to obtain historical cell phone location data. This important ruling makes it clear that we don’t have to give up privacy to participate in modern society.
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Courts in California Demand Warrant for Cell Phone Location Information
Jul 29, 2015
The ACLU of Northern California has joined the Federal Public Defender’s Office and the Electronic Frontier Foundation in supporting a warrant requirement for access to cell phone location information.
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San Francisco Needs to Take a Closer Look at Its Body Camera Plan
Jul 13, 2015
San Francisco, like many local communities, is considering the use of police body worn cameras, and the Board of Supervisors recently allocated $6.6 million for their purchase pending approval of a use policy. But for body cameras to deliver on their promise of accountability and promote public trust, there must be transparency and public trust in both the process that leads to a decision to adopt...
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New Bill Would Force Companies to Report "Terrorist Activity" to the Government
Jul 07, 2015
If there’s one thing the First Amendment stands for, it’s that vigorous debate about the issues of the day—even, and perhaps especially, uncomfortable debate about things like racism or terrorism—should be free from government interference. Tragically, that principle has been betrayed repeatedly over the past decade and a half, as law enforcement agencies continue to single out individuals for scr...
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With DAC Vote, Oakland Shows How Surveillance Reform Begins at Home
Jun 10, 2015
Last week wasn’t just a big one for NSA reform – it also found one of California’s largest cities rolling back warrantless surveillance by local law enforcement. With a unanimous vote, the Oakland City Council adopted a privacy policy for its port-centered surveillance project known as the Domain Awareness Center (DAC) and created a new committee to address citywide surveillance reform, including ...
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Victory! California Senate Tells Cops to Get a Warrant
Jun 03, 2015
The California Senate on June 3, 2015 took a powerful stand for privacy, voting overwhelmingly to approve the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (CalECPA).
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A Plug-and-Play Model Policy for Police Body Cameras
May 21, 2015
A growing chorus of elected officials, law enforcement, and community leaders settled on an answer to the senseless deaths of unarmed people of color at the hands of law enforcement: body cameras. And one in four police agencies have already started using them.
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