
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.
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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The Fight Against Surveillance in San Francisco
Feb 09, 2023
For decades, the ACLU of Northern California has fought back against discriminatory and dangerous state surveillance in San Francisco. Read a chronicle of our movement.
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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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With Our Rights Under Attack, We Can’t Let SFPD Exploit Private Surveillance Cameras
Jul 08, 2022
Here in the Bay Area, we must do everything we can right now to bolster privacy protections, not build more surveillance.
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Our Vision to Achieve True Public Safety
Feb 17, 2022
We can increase equality, justice, and safety without resorting to criminalization and surveillance.
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Recordings Show the California Highway Patrol’s Aerial Surveillance of Racial Justice Protests
Nov 16, 2021
Our year-long investigation uncovered records that show California Highway Patrol (CHP) spying on protesters for racial justice in cities up and down the state
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Diners Beware: That Meal May Cost You Your Privacy and Security
Jul 27, 2021
Scanning QR codes instead of ordering from a physical menu is a way for companies to insert all the machinery of the online advertising ecosystem between you and your food.
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Grassroots Activists are Leading the Fight to Stop Face Recognition. It’s Time for Congress to Step Up, Too.
Jul 17, 2021
Tech companies and police forces would like us to believe that there is nothing we can do to stop harmful surveillance technologies like face recognition. We reject that narrative.
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