News

Today, the ACLU of Northern California filed suit against the City and County of San Francisco and San Francisco Police Chief Gregory Suhr on behalf of a civil rights activist, Bob Offer-Westort, whose cell phone was searched by the San Francisco Police Department without a warrant after he was arrested while engaging in peaceful civil disobedience. Read More

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California will charge the Alameda County Sheriff's Office with secretly proceeding with plans to unleash a surveillance drone on Alameda County during a press conference TOMORROW, Dec. 4., at 10 a.m. outside the Alameda County administration building. Read More

Today the ACLU of Northern California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a federal class-action lawsuit to block implementation of unconstitutional provisions of Proposition 35 - a ballot measure passed by voters that restricts the legal and constitutionally protected speech of all registered sex offenders in California. Read More

Today the ACLU of Northern California (ACLU-NC) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a federal class-action lawsuit to block implementation of unconstitutional provisions of Proposition 35 - a ballot measure passed by California voters Tuesday that restricts the legal and constitutionally protected speech of all registered sex offenders in California. Read More

On Sep. 19, 2012, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will rehear the ACLU of Northern California's federal class-action challenge to a California law that mandates that DNA is collected from anyone arrested on suspicion of a felony, whether or not they are ever charged or convicted. The oral argument is scheduled for 10am in Courtroom 1 at the James R. Browning US Courthouse in San Francisco. Read More

California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed the Reader Privacy Act of 2011, updating reader privacy law to ensure that readers—whether they buy books at traditional bookstores or read e-books online or on electronic devices—will have protection for their privacy. The bill will become law on January 1, 2012. "California will have the strongest laws in the country protecting reader privacy in the digital... Read More

Today privacy groups announced that Gibberbot, a secure instant messaging and chat app, is the winner of the 2011 Develop for Privacy Challenge (www.develop4privacy.org). The groups made the announcement in a celebratory event at the DEFCON security conference this week. The winning app in the inaugural Develop 4 Privacy Challenge, Gibberbot, is a secure chat and instant messaging app, created by ... Read More

Demanding to know when, why, and how police use mobile phone location data and deploy other surveillance technologies to track the people they are responsible for protecting and serving, the ACLU of CA sent requests to more than 50 law enforcement agencies across the state on Aug 3. Read More

A Superior Court judge granted a preliminary injunction to prevent the City of Redding from enforcing a policy at its library that would have restricted the ability of residents to share their ideas and opinions in front of the library through peaceful leafleting. The ACLU of Northern California and the North State Tea Party teamed up to enjoin specific sections of the policy because it violates t... Read More

The ACLU contacted a school district in northern California today because its Internet filtering software had been improperly configured to block access to web content geared toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. The organization has sent demand letters to school districts across the country as part of the organization's national "Don't Filter Me" initiative, which seeks t... Read More

California Senator Leland Yee has introduced the Reader Privacy Act of 2011 (SB 602), with backing from the California Affiliates of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The law would bring a much-needed upgrade to match Californians' reading habits. Under SB 602 the government and other third parties would need a warrant or court order for access... Read More

California Senator Leland Yee has introduced the Reader Privacy Act of 2011 (SB 602), with backing from the ACLU of California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The law would bring a much-needed upgrade to match Californians' reading habits. Read More