Blog

The ACLU of Northern California today submitted an analysis of the City of Alameda’s draft policies for automated license plate readers (ALPR), which the city will discuss next Monday night at a public forum hosted by the city council. Read More

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California today sent a letter to members of an Oakland City Council committee demanding there be more transparency and oversight over the city’s ongoing plans to build a domain awareness center (DAC) – essentially a central surveillance hub for law enforcement. Read More

We are very pleased that following our shareholder proposal, Verizon released its first transparency report today. Read More

This Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission will decide an important issue - whether to initiate a rulemaking to update privacy protections for the modern smartphone age. Join the ACLU of California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation and ask them to stand up for your cell phone privacy. Read More

Are you giving - or, better yet, hoping to get - a new Xbox One this holiday season? With the recent news that the NSA is spying on gaming networks, we put together some important privacy information and tips to help you better protect yourself. Read More

We took the fight for civil liberties into the corporate boardroom and today we mark an important victory. Verizon is finally going to break its silence and publish a transparency report about government demands for information. Last month, we filed shareholder proposals with AT&T and Verizon, calling on both companies to reveal what customer information they hand over to U.S. or foreign governmen... Read More

ACLU of Northern California files shareholder proposal with AT&T and Verizon, time for companies to break silence on data sharing with government. Read More

From revelations of widespread NSA spying to high profile data breaches, transparency is more important than ever. Our new policy paper takes a close look at what we all can do to increase transparency and protect privacy today. Read More

Shocking revelations about creepy government surveillance came in waves over the summer, from the Snowden leaks to the Hemisphere Project, through which the government has paid AT&T for access to a mind-bogglingly vast database of our telephone calls. In many cases of new surveillance technologies like Hemisphere, there are serious constitutional concerns that courts have not yet reviewed. Tha... Read More

Yesterday morning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral argument in the ACLU of Northern California’s lawsuit with the Electronic Frontier Foundation against Proposition 35. I told the court that Proposition 35 is too broad and violates the First Amendment. As the federal district court has already held, it affects too much protected speech, on too many websites, by too many p... Read More

SB 397 would allow the California DMV to issue Enhanced Driver's Licenses embedded with computer chips called RFIDs that can be read from 30 feet away without your knowing. The country's largest electronics industry group warned against using this technology for security reasons. SB 397 lacks the basic safeguards necessary to protect our privacy and security. Enhanced Driver's Licenses just aren't... Read More

The ACLU of Northern California today urged the Oakland City Council to put the brakes on a proposed $11 million surveillance center because it would enable the City to engage in widespread warrantless surveillance of Oakland residents. (Read our letter here.)The so-called Domain Awareness Center (DAC) would consolidate a vast network of surveillance data. It would pull in over 1,000 cameras and s... Read More