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Blog
We can be pretty sure that each new day will bring two things: new threats to our civil liberties, and new stories of people standing up for their rights and winning. Behind every court ruling is a person. Behind every landmark law is a movement. Read the stories and hear the voices that ground our work.
Once Again, California Refused to Endorse Face Surveillance. Now It’s Time to Ban It.
Aug 21, 2024
For the third time in five years, California rejected a bill that would have greenlit government use of facial recognition across the state.
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Californians Fought Hard for Driver Privacy Protections. Why Are the Police Refusing to Follow Them?
Feb 12, 2024
Automatic license plate readers collect and store highly sensitive information that can reveal where we work, live, worship, or seek reproductive health services. Sharing any ALPR information with out-of-state or federal law enforcement agencies has been forbidden in California since 2016.
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When it Comes to Facial Recognition, There is No Such Thing as a Magic Number
Feb 07, 2024
Companies and legislators are using misleading test scores to justify the expansion of facial recognition into our communities. That flawed approach understates the threat this dangerous technology poses to civil rights.
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Cops Blanketed San Francisco In Geofence Warrants. Google Was Right to Protect People's Privacy
Jan 07, 2024
The change appears to place significant limits on law enforcement’s ability to use “geofence warrants” (also called “reverse location search warrants”) to find out who was in a particular place at a particular time. Google’s announcement is welcome news, and we are cautiously optimistic that this change—once it rolls out—will protect people for years to come.
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An Obscure Federal Law is Threatening Our Right to Anonymous Online Speech
Dec 13, 2023
Our right to speak anonymously, long protected by U.S. courts, is increasingly under attack by corporations and wealthy individuals looking to upend decades of free speech precedent.
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The Federal Trade Commission Must Investigate Meta and X for Complicity with Government Surveillance
Dec 12, 2023
We are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether Meta and X have broken their anti-surveillance commitments
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Human Rights and the US Constitution
Dec 11, 2023
The 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an opportunity to redouble our commitment to its principles worldwide. For those individuals and organizations whose focus is human rights within the United States, we are called to do two things. First, rather than cede the US Constitution to powerful forces who would use it to turn back the clock, we must embrace a visio...
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Progress in the Fight Against Face Surveillance
Aug 08, 2023
For years, ACLU of Northern California has built momentum to ban the use of face surveillance by law enforcement. That’s why we put all our muscle behind a campaign to defeat AB 642, a bill that would have normalized real-time, mass surveillance.
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The California Constitutional Right to Privacy Turns 50 - Our Longtime Work to Make Rights Real
Aug 08, 2023
Fifty years ago a modern constitutional right to privacy was added to the state constitution. And for the last five decades, that right has helped to safeguard our homes, our families, our bodies, our thoughts, and our associations from invasion by government and corporate interests.
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Berkeley Fails to Learn Surveillance Lessons Within 'Oppenheimer'
Aug 05, 2023
In Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer,’ there is a scene where government agents creep outside a gathering of UC Berkeley-affiliated activists to write down the license plates of those parked outside the event. Instead of learning from this history, the City of Berkeley has taken a step towards repeating it.
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Lessons from San Francisco’s Killer Robot Debate
Dec 20, 2022
How could San Francisco, a purported “progressive” city, authorize deadly police robots? And how do we stop this policy, or something similar, from returning?
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San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors Grants Police More Surveillance Powers
Sep 23, 2022
By a margin of 4-7, the San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted to give the SFPD access to privately owned cameras. With the cameras, comes the power to put essentially the entire city under live surveillance indefinitely.
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