Blog

The U.S. Supreme Court decision  issued on April 18, 2007 upholding a federal law banning certain abortions will endanger women's health and is a set back for all Americans who believe politicians should not legislate medical decision-making.  The decision disregards the opinion of leading doctors and medical organizations that oppose the ban because it is harmful to women... Read More

Over the past two years, we have written extensively about the privacy implications of National ID cards (more information here) and the increased risks if radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are used in these documents (more informaition here). If we are all carrying National ID cards, the government will have a much easier time monitoring and tracking our movements and activi... Read More

ACLU of Northern California wrote an amicus brief on Josh Wolf's behalf in both the District Court and Ninth Circuit, contesting the government's argument that a journalist cannot invoke a First Amendment privilege when presented with a grand jury subpoena. Click here for more information and to read the court documents. San Francisco Chronicle article New Yo... Read More

Remember in the movie, Minority Report, when the characters walked by a billboard and it changed to target the advertisement to that particular person or walked into a store and over the loudspeaker, it welcomed them and asked how they liked those pair of pants that had been purchased? That future is starting to become a reality with the use of RFID tags in products and not without serious privac... Read More

We won ACLU v. Gonzales, our longstanding challenge to stop a law that would suppress constitutionally protected speech on the Internet! Information about the case is available here. Press Release: Court Rules that Government May Not Censor the Internet New York – A federal district court today ruled in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union's long... Read More

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) also thinks Real ID is a real problem. In a press release issued today, Perata says: "Proposed federal regulations offer little to California on issues like cost, schedule, privacy, or new computer system requirements," Perata said. "This is one of the most egregious examples of an unfunded mandate, where the federal governm... Read More

The ACLU of Northern California has been very active in highlighting the need for privacy and free speech safeguards in municipal wireless programs. Cities should not be deploying wireless networks that track who we are, what we are looking at, and where we are looking at it from. Once that information is collected, who knows where it will end up or how it will be used or abused? But ... Read More

Google To Anonymize. Google will begin removing one fourth to half of each IP address after 18 months to 2 years to anonymize user data. The government has been asking ISPs to hold data for a year or more. Read more about it here and here. My question is how long Google was actually keeping data before and is this new policy really a privacy enhancing move or... Read More

Passengers in vehicles pulled over by the police have just as much right as drivers to challenge the legality of the traffic stop and its consequences, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled on June 18.In reversing the California Supreme Court, the high court essentially ruled that an unlawful traffic stop violates the rights of everybody in a vehicle – including passengers, not just the driver. Ever... Read More

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, today, called on lawmakers to push for a major overhaul of the Real ID Act, calling it a "real nightmare" for Californians. The Department of Homeland Security's recently proposed delay for implementing the act would do nothing to prevent a national identity card system that violates personal privacy and increases identity theft, all while... Read More

HID Global Corporation has threatened to sue IO Active, a computer security company based in Seattle, with patent infringement if it gives its planned presentation at the BlackHat Convention this Wednesday, February 28, 2007, in Washington D.C. The presentation discusses vulnerabilities of HID RFID cards and demonstrates a handheld RFID cloner developed by the company to highlight these vulnerabil... Read More

On Wednesday, January 31, the Montana House passed an anti-REAL ID bill on a vote of 99-1. The bill is expected to head to the Senate next week. The text of the bill can be found here. A number of other states, including Georgia, Hawaii, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming are also considering opting out of REAL ID, placing conditions on their participation in... Read More