News

In a first-of-its-kind decision and a victory for police accountability and transparency, an Alameda County judge has ruled that a public agency can’t charge excessive fees for police body worn camera footage. Read More

In a vote this morning, the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors made Santa Clara the first county in the nation to institute consistent transparency, accountability and oversight measures for all surveillance decisions with a groundbreaking ordinance. Read More

SACRAMENTO--Today Gov. Brown vetoed SB 249 (Hueso), a measure to create “Enhanced” Drivers Licenses (EDLs) to be used as an additional border-crossing identification document available only to U.S. citizens. EDLs employ outdated technology that would put Californians' private information at risk and open the door to high-tech racial profiling and employment discrimination.  “It... Read More

Today, in a landmark victory for Californians’ digital privacy rights, Governor Jerry Brown signed the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (CalECPA, SB 178) into law. The bill, jointly authored by Senators Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and Joel Anderson (R-Alpine), updates the state's privacy laws for the digital age by protecting Californians against warrantless surveillance of their d... Read More

In the midst of a national conversation about police transparency and accountability, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the Law Offices of Amitai Schwartz filed a lawsuit today against the City of Hayward and its Police Department (Hayward PD) for charging the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) unlawful and excessive costs as the price of disclosing body worn camera footage r... Read More

SACRAMENTO – In a tremendous victory for the electronic privacy rights of all Californians, the California Assembly today passed the California Electronic Privacy Act (CalECPA, SB 178) with strong support from Republicans and Democrats. The bill, jointly authored by Senator Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, and Senator Joel Anderson, R-Alpine, protects Californians against warrantless government access ... Read More

By overwhelming majorities, California voters are concerned about their digital privacy and support efforts to increase protections included in the California Electronic Privacy Act (CalECPA, SB 178), a statewide poll released today has found. Read More

The ACLU filed lawsuits on March 10, 2015 against the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department and the Anaheim Police Department, charging that the two agencies refuse to produce documents related to their use of StingRays. Read More

Senator Mark Leno has joined forces with a diverse coalition of the state’s leading technology companies and organizations, including the ACLU-NC to announce new legislation that modernizes California’s privacy laws to keep up with emerging technologies. The bill protects Californians against warrantless government access to electronic data. Read More

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that Proposition 35, a 2012 California ballot initiative that would have restricted the rights of registered sex offenders to communicate on the Internet, is likely unconstitutional. The opinion affirms an earlier district court ruling in Doe v. Harris, a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the Electronic Fro... Read More

Counties and cities across California have spent more than $60 million on invasive surveillance technology, the vast majority of which are being used by law enforcement agencies without any sort of public debate, consideration of costs and benefits, or adequate policies to safeguard against misuse, according to data compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union of California. Read More

Today the ACLU of Northern California’s Michael Risher will be arguing in front of an 11-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit in Haskell v. Harris, which challenges California’s mandatory DNA collection at arrest law. “People who have never been charged with a crime shouldn’t have their DNA put in a government database,” said Michael Risher, staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California. The... Read More