Privacy and Government Surveillance

Privacy is guaranteed under the California Constitution – including the right to be free from unwarranted government surveillance. Individuals, not the government or corporations, should determine how and when other people can access our personal information.

About Amazon's dangerous new facial recognition tech... Read more

SB 1186 can restores CA's power to fight secret surveillance... Learn more

CalECPA updates digital rights to keep up with modern world. Read More

A Smart Surveillance guide for communities. Download

In re Ricardo P. (Electronic Search)

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Criminal Justice and Drug Policy, Privacy and Government Surveillance, Technology and Civil Liberties

This case arises from the decision by a California trial court to impose an expansive “electronics search condition” on a young probationer that required him to submit his electronic devices and online account passwords for a search as a condition... Read more

Map of California, showing the proliferation of police surveillance technology

Dear Attorney General Kamala Harris, It's Time to Act on Surveillance Technology

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Privacy and Government Surveillance, Racial Justice, Technology and Civil Liberties

Dear Attorney General Harris: On your watch as California’s top cop, law enforcement agencies up and down the state have been secretly using social media surveillance software that has been marketed to monitor protests and activists of color. Read more

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter Provided Data Access for a Surveillance Product Marketed to Target Activists of Color

October 11, 2016

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Privacy and Government Surveillance, Racial Justice, Technology and Civil Liberties

The ACLU of California has obtained records showing that Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram provided user data access to Geofeedia, a developer of a social media monitoring product that we have seen marketed to law enforcement as a tool to monitor... Read more »

Santa Cruz: ACLU Forum on Mass Surveillance

October 24, 2016 - 7:00pm

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Privacy and Government Surveillance, Technology and Civil Liberties

Spy drones, automated license plate readers, street corner cameras, cell phone trackers, call interception, and social media monitoring software are some of the many methods used today to monitor our daily movements and communications. Read more

Map of California, with dots marking the areas where local law enforcement has acquired social media monitoring software

Police Use of Social Media Surveillance Software is Escalating, and Activists are in the Digital Crosshairs

September 22, 2016

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Privacy and Government Surveillance, Racial Justice, Technology and Civil Liberties

It goes without saying that speaking out against police violence or government overreach shouldn’t land you in a surveillance database. But it can, and it does. The ACLU of California has received thousands of pages of public records revealing that... Read more »

It's Time to Shine a Light on Police Surveillance in Fresno

September 21, 2016

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Privacy and Government Surveillance, Racial Justice, Technology and Civil Liberties

When you are having meetings about transparency and building trust with law enforcement, the last thing you expect to hear is that they may be secretly spying on you. But that is exactly what happened to us as community activists with Fresno Faith... Read more »

Santa Clara County Supervisors vote unanimously to pass a surveillance technology ordinance

Interrupting Surveillance in Silicon Valley and Beyond

September 21, 2016

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Privacy and Government Surveillance, Racial Justice, Technology and Civil Liberties

Public cynicism about government is at an all-time high – and we all know the reasons. That's why it's pretty remarkable when activists use public government processes to attack a scary and overwhelming problem like surveillance – and it works. Read more »

Blue lights in Oakland plaza at night spell out STOP THE SPY CENTER

How the Fight to Stop Oakland's Domain Awareness Center Laid the Groundwork for the Oakland Privacy Commission

September 21, 2016

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Privacy and Government Surveillance, Racial Justice, Technology and Civil Liberties

When Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the NSA in 2013, I didn’t yet know that my own city of Oakland had futuristic surveillance problems of our own. Oakland had quietly embarked on a path towards building a city-wide surveillance network called... Read more »

Map: State of Surveillance in California

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Privacy and Government Surveillance, Technology and Civil Liberties

This interactive map, based on ACLU of California research, is designed to help you understand how surveillance in your community compares with other California cities and counties. Read more

San Jose: #ColorOfSurveillance Panel

September 15, 2016 - 11:00am

File Under :

Privacy and Government Surveillance, Technology and Civil Liberties

As technology advances, the color of surveillance often remains the same. Billions of dollars are now being spent on sophisticated surveillance technology - from spy planes and stingrays to predictive software - and it is most often directed at poor... Read more