Blog

People deserve a voice in making informed community choices about the use of surveillance. One of the biggest roadblocks is that there is very little public information about the state of surveillance. Read More

"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." The saying has been around for decades, but it has never been truer in an era where technology so often seems to promise something for nothing. Read More

It appears the Federal Aviation Administration may have fallen into the "constitutional sinkhole" that is Ferguson, Missouri. Earlier this week, the Associated Press released an alarming set of documents revealing the FAA's decision to approve a no-fly zone over Ferguson – a no-fly zone requested by local police in order to muzzle media coverage of protests in the wake of the killing of unarmed bl... Read More

Today the ACLU, along with a coalition of partner organizations, went to Facebook to urge it to fix its flawed “real name” policy and provide users meaningful due process.During that meeting Facebook apologized for the harm that the current policy has caused users, especially those in the LGBTQ community, and promised to improve its reporting, enforcement, and appeals processes.This is an importan... Read More

Today the ACLU is joining a broad coalition at Facebook’s headquarters and urging the social network to allow users to speak in their chosen voice by fixing its flawed “real name” policy. Read More

When students at Glendale Unified School District learned through news reports last year that their Facebook and other social media accounts were being monitored by the district through a third-party company known as Geo Listening, students and parents were shocked, and so were we. Many saw the monitoring as invading student privacy and chilling off-campus speech. In response, Assembly Member M... Read More

California had the chance to be a leader in requiring police to get a warrant to use surveillance technology. But Gov. Brown vetoed a bill, AB 1327, that would have done just that for police drones.This is a big disappointment and Gov. Brown missed the mark with this veto.AB 1327 would have provided basic statewide protections against abuse by police drones. Without it, cities and counties are lef... Read More

New documents obtained by the ACLU of Northern California appear to show the Florida-based Harris Corporation misleading the Federal Communications Commission while seeking authorization to sell its line of Stingray cell phone surveillance gear to state and local police. The documents raise the possibility that federal regulatory approval of the technology was based on bad information. The ACLU to... Read More

“BART Watch" is a new app designed to encourage users to report suspicious activities. But we’re calling out this app for its own suspicious activities - having no privacy policy that explains the sensitive information it collects and may be sharing with others, and for encouraging people to file potentially spurious complaints about innocent residents. Read More

Get a warrant -- that’s what I would say if the police showed up at my door asking to look around. Why? Because it’s my right. It’s one of the core principles that this country was founded on: the government, including local police, can’t come into my home unless they prove to a judge that they have a real reason to invade my privacy.If police want to search your house, they need to get a warrant.... Read More

A coalition of advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, sent a letter this week to the San Jose City Council demanding that it have the necessary public debate of whether a drone should ever be used in San Jose well before it starts to consider how it could be used. Read More

It’s Time for a Public Debate and a New Vote Over San Jose Police Purchase of DroneThe San Jose Police Department (SJPD) is clearly getting ahead of itself. Despite there not having been any sort of public debate about whether or not to use a drone at all, the department today issued a statement saying it will develop policies and procedures for its deployment. With the history of police abus... Read More