Wednesday SF Supervisor Hearing on Muni WiFi

Wednesday San Francisco Board of Supervisors Hearing on Muni WiFi

WHEN: Wednesday, July 11, 2007

TIME: 1:00pm (approximate start time)

WHERE: City Hall, Board Chamber, room 250, Budget and Finance Committee

The SF Board of Supervisor's Budget Committee will hold a public hearing on Wednesday afternoon about the Earthlink/Google contract.

The Budget Committee will vote whether to approve the contract, so it is very important for people to attend and voice privacy and free speech concerns about the contract. Agenda here.

The ACLU of Northern California and EFF recently wrote a joint letterresponding to a San Francisco Department of Telecommunications and Information Services (DTIS) letter that purported to address our concerns that there are not adequate protections for privacy and free speech in the current contract.

DTIS's response only confirmed that the Earthlink (fee service) and Google (no fee service) contract provisions lack adequate protections for privacy and free speech.

Both the ACLU of Northern California and EFF have spent considerable time analyzing the current contract, carefully differentiating between concerns with the Earthlink portion of the Agreement and the Google portion of the Agreement, and making concrete recommendations about how to modify the current contract in ways.

These recommendations take account of the realities of providing municipal wireless service, while ensuring some basic protections for privacy and free speech. See our letter for recommendations.

It is now up to the Supervisors to ensure that the contract is modified appropriately to ensure that the rights of San Franciscans are properly protected.

If you live in San Francisco, please attend the meeting or call or email your Supervisor and let them know that you want them to modify the contract to protect privacy and free speech.