Blog

Today, California lawmakers took an important step towards updating reader privacy for the digital age. The California Assembly passed the Reader Privacy Act of 2011 (SB 602) with a strong bipartisan vote of 60-13. The Reader Privacy Act is authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), co-sponsored by the ACLU of California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and supported by di... Read More

Today Facebook is rolling out a series of changes to its privacy controls. We reviewed the changes in detail on Tuesday; now here's how you can take advantage of these changes:Turn On "Profile Review" One of the biggest changes to Facebook's privacy controls is the option to review any content you're tagged in (including photos, Places, and more) before that content is fed into your news feed. Yo... Read More

Quick quiz: where did a government agency shut down cell service yesterday to disrupt a political protest? You wouldn't expect the answer to be San Francisco, but that's exactly what happened on Aug. 12, 2011. BART blocked cell service on trains and platforms in San Francisco after notifying riders that there might be demonstrations near Civic Center.All over the world people are using mobile devi... Read More

This morning, Facebook announced its latest set of changes to its privacy controls that will start rolling out on August 25. The upcoming changes are intended to make it easier for you to understand and choose who can see both content you post yourself and tags created by other users. Allowing you to pre-approve tags and giving you better tools to manage your own profile is a positive step, and we... Read More

BART is the first known government agency in the United States to block cell service in order to disrupt a political protest. In this case the demonstration was to protest the recent fatal shooting of a passenger by BART police. Pulling the plug on cell phones is the wrong response to political protests, whether it's halfway around the world or right here at home.On Thursday, August 11, BART shut ... Read More

The Develop for Privacy Challenge, organized by the ACLUs of Northern California and Washington, the Tor Project, and the Information & Privacy Commissioner's Office of Ontario, was launched to highlight some of the best privacy-enhancing mobile apps out there—apps that improve, rather than erode, our ability to protect and control our own private information. After our judges evaluated many q... Read More

If you're using LinkedIn, you're probably doing so to connect with peers and colleagues, explore new business relationships, or even network for your next career move. Chances are you didn't join LinkedIn so you could tell your boss or your colleagues which products or brands you like. But LinkedIn's new "social advertising" feature does exactly that: it takes your name or photo and connects that ... Read More

In honor of Privacy Enhancing Technology (PET) and "James Bond Man from U.N.C.L.E. type spy stuff" being the themes of this year's DEFCON 19, the ACLU is serving up some special activities. Hope you will join us if you are in Vegas for DEFCON!Develop4Privacy Challenge Award Celebration- Friday Night, August 5, 6 p.m. – Main Event StageCome see whose mobile privacy app reigned supreme and won the D... Read More

By Allie BohmACLU National OfficeToday, 34 ACLU affiliates are filing 379 public records requests in 31 states around the nation, seeking information about how our local law enforcement agencies are using our cell phone location information to track us.Chances are you're walking around with a tracking device in your purse or pocket – a cell phone. Location data from your cell phone can m... Read More

Today, the House Judiciary Committee is voting whether to approve legislation that would create a sweeping new provision requiring Internet companies (email, cloud, social networking, and more) to collect and retain hundreds of millions of records about the identity of online users. The bill, HR 1981, the "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011," – if only it were that narrow!... Read More

By Jay StanleyACLU National OfficeGeorge Washington University Law School professor Dan Solove is one of the preeminent law scholars working on privacy issues today. In his latest book, Nothing to Hide: the False Tradeoff between Privacy and Security, Solove translates his research and thinking into a succinct analysis intended for a general audience. Via e-mail, I recently asked Solove about... Read More

Google released its new transparency report this week, revealing that U.S. government demands for the personal information of Google's users, like chat records or emails, continue to rise. The report serves to emphasize the heightened importance of increased transparency about how often the government is accessing sensitive information about who we are, where we go, what we do and why. Read More