Blog

Sen. Mark Leno has introduced new legislation, sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union of California and a number of other organizations, that reforms California's drug sentencing laws for simple possession.The bill, SB 649, allows counties to significantly reduce incarceration costs by giving prosecutors the flexibility to charge low-level drug possession for personal use as a misdemeanor... Read More

By Ateqah KhakiACLU National OfficeToday, the Associated Press reports that some employers are asking applicants for their Facebook usernames and passwords. According to the article:Since the rise of social networking, it has become common for managers to review publically available Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts and other sites to learn more about job candidates. But many users, especially o... Read More

For the past 20 years, protections for First Amendment activity have been robust in San Francisco. In other words, no spying on San Franciscans without hard evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Read More

You spoke, PayPal listened, and now erotic authors and booksellers appear likely to continue to enjoy the freedom to publish their works without threat of censorship.After hearing from the ACLU of California and its members and other free expression suporters, PayPal has revised its plans to cut off booksellers who sell certain types of erotic content, stating that it will only request that bookse... Read More

Last fall UC Berkeley police cracked down on student and faculty protesters involved in Occupy Cal demonstrations with baton blows and other serious force. Now, UC Berkeley demonstrators are facing criminal prosecution by the Alameda County. The circumstances are fishy and raise questions that demand answers.The Alameda County District Attorney is planning to prosecute at least 11 students and one... Read More

It came as a surprise to some folks at a recent SXSW talk that Apple's Siri "personal assistant" isn't just working for us, it's working full-time for Apple too by sending lots of our personal voice and user info to Apple to stockpile in its databases. Take a peek at Siri's privacy policy (which, by the way, is pretty difficult to find) and you'll realize what's happening behind the scenes.What in... Read More

Free speech isn't so free when booksellers have to choose between hosting legitimate content and earning a living. Unfortunately, PayPal is threatening to stop doing business with several online booksellers, significantly impacting their revenue in the process, unless the booksellers agree to stop providing content that is perfectly legal but violates PayPal's policy. Please join us and tell PayPa... Read More

Tomorrow, Google will put in place a new privacy policy across the vast majority of Google products and platforms. As we told you when they announced the new policy back in January, the new policy makes clear that Google will, for the first time, combine the personal data you share with any one of its products or sites across almost all of its products and sites (everything but Google Chrome, Goog... Read More

By Chris CalabreseACLU Washington Legislative OfficeToday, the White House released a new policy paper on consumer privacy which may mark an important turning point in the effort to return control over how our online information is handled.The report contains two main elements. The first is a detailed description about what the administration believes are the core principles that should under... Read More

In the past week, the White House, the Federal Trade Commission, and the California Attorney General's Office have all released reports or announced agreements designed to promote consumer privacy. These announcements incorporate several good ideas that, if implemented and enforced, would give users more control over their own personal information. But the recent moves are just a starting point fo... Read More

UC Davis students filed a federal lawsuit over the University's treatment of protesters during a demonstration in which campus police doused seated protesters with pepper spray. Read More

The war on drugs has failed, and people are ready for a change. The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. One in every 31 adults is on probation, in jail or in prison. FBI figures show that over 800,000 people in the U.S. are arrested for marijuana offenses each year. The vast majority of these arrests are for low-level, nonviolent simple possession offenses. Read More