Archive

In the months since Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern made known his desire to acquire and deploy a surveillance drone, the ACLU has consistently warned that such a plan carries serious privacy implications, that it is imperative the advertised benefits of a drone be weighed against the costs and that strict privacy safeguards be put into place to ensure that drones are not used for warrantless... Read More

Last year was jam-packed with stories of companies making costly mistakes on user privacy and free speech. To help companies get a fresh start in 2013, the ACLU of California has just released the new edition of Privacy and Free Speech: It's Good for Business. This primer (and companion website) is a practical, how-to guide illustrating how businesses can build privacy and free speech protectio... Read More

Bertha Mejia is a 53-year-old grandmother who fled political violence and sexual abuse in her native El Salvador as a girl. She has four U.S. citizen children and is the primary caretaker for her 9-year-old grandson, Pablo. The victim of rape at the hands of her employer, Ms. Mejia has a strong case for a "U-visa," a type of visa for victims of crime who cooperate with law enforcement. The police ... Read More

No one wants something as valuable as their credit card numbers to fall into the wrong hands. That's why we limit private uses of this type of personal data. But what about government agencies that hold some of your most vulnerable, confidential information? We need to ensure that safeguards against unauthorized access to your data are in place, especially given the increasing amounts of personal ... Read More

The ACLU filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court this afternoon to stop the government from invading the genetic privacy of hundreds of thousands of Americans every year. The case, Maryland v. King, involves the question of whether the police can take DNA from everybody they arrest, without a search warrant or any reason to think that the DNA sample will be helpful in solving a crime. We argue tha... Read More

On the 40th Anniversary of the landmark decision Roe v. Wade, state leaders, women's health and rights groups, announced the introduction of a bill that would improve abortion access. The bill, AB 154, authored by Assemblymember Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), improves access by expanding the types of health professionals who can provide early abortions. Read More

This morning's media event was Facebook's announcement of "Graph Search," a new tool to find content and data on Facebook that could wind up making information about you far easier your friends or just about anyone else to find. Graph Search allows you to search Facebook for specific people, places, or content – for example, "friend of friends who live in New York and like sushi" or "restaurants l... Read More

Today a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Northern California (ACLU-NC) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) that challenges unconstitutional provisions in Proposition 35. "The court recognized that Prop 35's online speech regulations are overly broad and violate the First Amendment," said Linda Lye, staff attorney at the ACLU-NC. "Stopping... Read More

21 students and alumni filed a federal lawsuit on Feb. 22, 2012 against UC Davis over the University's treatment of protesters during a Nov. 18, 2011 demonstration in which campus police were caught on video dousing seated protesters with pepper spray. Read More

In response to an ACLU of Northern California Public Records Act request, the California Emergency Management Agency, the state entity that administers federal homeland security grant funds, recently confirmed that the Alameda County Sheriff's Office is the only agency in the entire state of California to have applied for or obtained grant funding from Cal-EMA for a drone.While this doesn't mean t... Read More