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.
Why It’s More Important Than Ever to Protect Privacy and Free Speech: The ACLU Business Guide
Oct 24, 2018
Tech Companies are under a microscope and the stakes couldn’t be higher – for democracy, for consumers, and for their bottom line. This guide gives businesses expert advice on how to navigate this landscape.
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Amazon Met With ICE Officials to Market Its Facial Recognition Product
Oct 24, 2018
It was recently discovered that Amazon is marketing its face surveillance product "Rekgonition" to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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Police Are Acquiring Surveillance Tech in Secret. A California Bill Would Give the Public a Say.
Aug 07, 2018
A groundbreaking bill pending in California would bring this day-to-day local surveillance out of the shadows and give communities a way to fight back against surveillance systems that are disproportionately aimed at immigrants and people of color.
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Amazon’s Face Recognition Falsely Matched 28 Members of Congress With Mugshots
Jul 26, 2018
In a test the ACLU recently conducted of Amazon's facial recognition tool, called “Rekognition,” the software incorrectly matched 28 members of Congress, identifying them as other people who have been arrested for a crime. The false matches were disproportionately of people of color.
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Electric Scooters Are Racing to Collect Your Data
Jul 25, 2018
Scooter companies Spin, Bird, and Lime are racing to gather your personal data, and have failed to take the time and steps necessary to properly address rider privacy.
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Over 150,000 People Tell Amazon: Stop Selling Facial Recognition Tech to Police
Jun 18, 2018
On Monday afternoon, civil rights, religious, and community organizations are taking their demand that Amazon stop providing face surveillance technology to governments, including police departments, to the company’s headquarters in Seattle. The groups will deliver over 150,000 petition signatures, a coalition letter signed by nearly 70 organizations representing comm...
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We're Demanding the Government Come Clean on Surveillance of Social Media
May 24, 2018
The Trump administration is ramping up surveillance of what people say on social media — and it’s doing so largely in secret.
Social media surveillance by the government raises serious concerns about free speech, racial and religious profiling, and privacy. The ACLU today filed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out how agencies like the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are...
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A New Bill Restores California’s Power to Fight Secret Surveillance
May 03, 2018
In neighborhoods across California, law enforcement agencies are deploying secret and invasive surveillance technologies to collect sensitive location and biometric data, target local activists, and feed ICE’s deportation machine.
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Californians Are Winning the Fight Against Secret Surveillance
Apr 05, 2018
As the Trump Administration exploits local surveillance systems to target immigrants, California residents are fighting for legislation and reforms that protect all residents from invasive surveillance.
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After the Facebook Privacy Debacle, It’s Time for Clear Steps to Protect Users
Mar 23, 2018
We learned last weekend that a trove of personal information from 50 million people — one in three U.S. Facebook users — was harvested for an influence and propaganda operation led by Cambridge Analytica, a company later used by the Trump campaign. Was Facebook hacked? Nope. All of this personal information was accessed through the Facebook “app gap,” a major privacy hole in Facebook’s app platfor...
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Facial-Recognition—A Powerful Tool for Authoritarian Surveillance
Mar 06, 2018
Companies developing facial-recognition software need to consider how their products enable dragnet surveillance, discriminatory enforcement, and abuse.
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