Archive

In case you missed it on our National ACLU blog, here is an entry written by the ACLU's Amanda Simon about a report sponsored by DHS concluding that data mining is entirely ineffective in preventing terrorism:Yesterday, a report on data mining was released by the Committee on Technical and Privacy Dimensions of Information for Terrorism Prevention and Other National Goals (a.k.a.: CTPDITPONG). The... Read More

Already king of the U.S. search engine hill, Google branched out into browser software with the recent release of Chrome. Unfortunately, Chrome's improvements, while alluring, come at a considerable cost in private information. Two data collection mechanisms, "Google Suggest" and usage statistics gathering, will collect massive amounts of data whenever we use the browser.Chrome does provide some o... Read More

Governor Schwarzenegger took an important first step to protect the privacy, personal safety, and financial security of millions of Californians by signing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) anti-skimming legislation into law this week.SB 31, authored by Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and the Electronic Frontier... Read More

Governor Schwarzenegger took an important first step to protect the privacy, personal safety, and financial security of millions of Californians by signing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) anti-skimming legislation into law this week. Read More

This week marks the 27th celebration of Banned Books Week, a national event promoted by the American Library Association (ALA) celebrating the freedom to read.To Kill a Mockingbird, The Color Purple, and Heather Has Two Mommies are just a few examples of material that some have tried to keep off library shelves. According to the ALA, more than 400 books were challenged this year. Among the top ten... Read More

A bill requiring public employees who provide evacuees with disaster-related assistance to do so without asking for information or documents not strictly necessary to determine eligibility for the services, AB 2327 (Caballero), was signed into law by the governor yesterday. Civil rights organizations that had provided assistance to victims of last year's California wildfires applauded the bill. Read More

We have blogged about the invasive new border search policies that allow copying of books, documents and data, as well as intrusive questioning, all without probable cause and in conflict with decades of legal precedents.The Travelers' Privacy Protection Act restores privacy protections, while still enabling federal border agents to retain foreign intelligence information by obtaining a warrant.Se... Read More

In case you missed it on our National ACLU blog, here is an entry written by the ACLU's Matt Bors about federal policies that allow DHS to search international travelers without consent or any suspicion of wrongdoing:Previously we've discussed the push to search under travellers' clothes with the naked machine and the million nameson the terrorist watch list. The latest Civil Discourse comic exami... Read More

Would you allow a stranger to sift through your purse or wallet and take your driver's license? Would you want your children or grandchildren to tell passers-by on the street what school they attend or their student ID numbers?Of course not. You know it is important to protect your and your family's personal information.But any time that tiny computer chips called Radio Frequency Identification (R... Read More

A settlement was finalized September 16 between the ACLU Foundation of Northern California and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) in its case involving Kebin Reyes, a U.S. citizen who was six years old when he was illegally detained for ten hours by immigration officials. We argued that Kebin's constitutional rights were violated when he was taken from his home in San Rafael... Read More