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Yesterday, California lawmakers took an important first step towards updating reader privacy for the digital age. The California Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Reader Privacy Act of 2011 (SB 602) with a strong bipartisan vote of 4-0.Authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), and co-sponsored by the ACLU California affiliates and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Reade... Read More

Yesterday we sent a letter to the San Francisco Entertainment Commission highlighting our concerns with proposed new rules for bars, clubs, and other venues that host various forms of live entertainment. The new rules would require the venue to use ID scanners and video cameras to monitor every performer and attendee. In doing so, they would constitute a massive invasion of the privacy rights that... Read More

By Amanda SimonACLU National OfficeThe Senate Judiciary Committee met this week to hear testimony from Obama administration officials on upcoming plans to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). You remember ECPA? That bill passed in 1986 — before we had the World Wide Web — to protect your electronic records and which hasn't been updated since?Well, at the hearing two government ... Read More

Free speech means that we all have the ability to express and hear a range of ideas. But does that extend to the world of apps? We say yes. Nearly 50 million of us carry smartphones that let us browse the marketplace of online apps – which is also a marketplace of ideas and expression. Companies like Apple, Google and RIM have the power and opportunity to make sure that their users have access to ... Read More

By Rachel MyersACLU National OfficeIn a huge victory for privacy and the rule of law, a federal appeals court today reinstated our landmark lawsuit challenging the FISA Amendments Act (FAA), a statute that gives the executive branch virtually unchecked power to collect Americans' international e-mails and telephone calls.The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of a broad coalition of attorneys and hu... Read More

What you read says a lot about what you think and believe. That's why the ACLU, EFF, and the Samuelson Clinic at UC Berkeley filed an objection [pdf] to the proposed Google Book Search settlement on behalf of authors and readers concerned about inadequate privacy safeguards in the book service. Now a federal court has rejected that proposed settlement. In today's court opinion [pdf], the judge wro... Read More

On April 6, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold another hearing to discuss the woefully outdated Electronic Communications Privacy Act. (Did we mention that it was written in 1986?!)In response to past Congressional Committee hearings, the ACLU submitted testimony calling on Congress to modernize ECPA in the following ways:Protect Personal Information. The government shouldn't be able to get ... Read More

Facebook is working on a "privacy policy written for regular people." Giving users descriptions that they can actually understand is a great thing, and we're glad to see Facebook move in that direction. But, as we've pointed out with Facebook before, simpler isn't always better—and some parts of the proposed policy are pretty confusing anyhow. So we're glad that Facebook plans to make its new priv... Read More

A few weeks ago, we all learned that the Justice Department had obtained an order demanding that Twitter turn over private information about several of its users in connection with the government's investigation of WikiLeaks.These demands only became public because Twitter, when it got the orders, apparently didn't just blindly comply, but took steps to get the order unsealed. Twitter was then abl... Read More

Today Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA 12th District) introduced the Do Not Track Me Online Act of 2011 (HR 654). This Act would provide much-needed privacy controls for Americans' online information and create a barrier against unwarranted surveillance.We are all learning, sharing, shopping, and connecting online. But the more we do online, the more personal information is being collected by co... Read More

By Suzanne ItoACLU National OfficeLate yesterday, a court unsealed three motions filed by the ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) last month on behalf of Birgitta Jonsdottir, the Icelandic parliamentarian whose Twitter account records were targeted by the government in connection with its investigation related to WikiLeaks.We filed these motions in late January, but because they were ini... Read More

By Suzanne ItoACLU National OfficeToday, a court unsealed three motions filed by the ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) last month on behalf of Birgitta Jonsdottir, the Icelandic parliamentarian whose Twitter account records were targeted by the government in connection with its investigation related to WikiLeaks.A public hearing on the motions is set for February 15 in Alexandria, Virg... Read More