News

WASHINGTON — Microsoft today called for federal action and committed to company steps to address the civil rights threats of face recognition technology. This comes after the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as community groups, employees, and consumers, raised grave concerns about face recognition technology, particularly in the hands of government. Neema Singh Guliani, ACLU legislative... Read More

Concern for privacy is at an all-time high in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and yet California has enacted a law that utterly fails to provide the privacy protections the public has demanded and deserves. Read More

The Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection passed SB 1186, a bill that would require public debate prior to local law enforcement acquiring new surveillance technology. Read More

Contact: Daisy Vieyra, (916) 442-1036 x613Sacramento – Today, the State Senate advanced SB 1186 to the Assembly for consideration. SB 1186, introduced by Senator Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) requires public debate and a vote by local elected leaders prior to law enforcement’s acquisition of new surveillance technology, among other oversight protections.The following statement is attributed to Matt Cag... Read More

Today the American Civil Liberties Union Foundations of California released emails between Amazon employees and local law enforcement revealing how the company has been pushing its facial recognition product, prompting privacy objections about how the technology is being used. The emails were obtained through freedom of information requests submitted by the ACLU.The documents are the result of a s... Read More

Last night, the people of Oakland took a significant step in reclaiming ownership of their neighborhoods and protecting the community from secret and invasive police surveillance with the passage of a landmark surveillance ordinance by the City Council. Read More

The federal government’s policies on searching the phones, laptops, and tablets of domestic air passengers remain shrouded in secrecy. Read More

The ACLU of Northern California prevailed in court today in a suit under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) seeking the Department of Justice’s policies related to the use of location tracking surveillance technology in criminal investigations. Read More

On Oct. 15, Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 31, the California Religious Freedom Act to ensure the state of California never participates in a federal Muslim registry. 

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Facing opposition from over 60 groups including the ACLU of California, AB 165 is dead, for now. The unnecessary, harmful bill would've exposed millions to invasive digital searches at California schools.

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Facebook now clearly prohibits the use of company data for surveillance. These updates respond to demands from a coalition that includes the ACLU of California, the Center for Media Justice, and Color of Change. As a next step, the coalition is pushing the companies to establish robust systems to ensure that important rules protecting users against surveillance are followed.

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The ACLU of California filed suit Monday against Secretary of State Alex Padilla challenging two statutes that prohibit voters from sharing ballot selfies. Read More