Blog

At yesterday's Budget Committee meeting, the San Supervisors delayed voting on the Earthlink/Google contract until July 25. Watch it here. We were very pleased that Supervisor Peskin announced at the meeting that he is negotiating modifications to the contract, including the provisions related to privacy and free speech protections. Read More

Wednesday San Francisco Board of Supervisors Hearing on Muni WiFiWHEN: Wednesday, July 11, 2007TIME: 1:00pm (approximate start time)WHERE: City Hall, Board Chamber, room 250, Budget and Finance CommitteeThe SF Board of Supervisor's Budget Committee will hold a public hearing on Wednesday afternoon about the Earthlink/Google contract.The Budget Committee will vote whether to approve the contract, s... Read More

In a 2-1 decision, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals today dismissed a legal challenge to the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program. The challenge was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of prominent journalists, scholars, attorneys and national nonprofit organizations who say that the unchecked surveillance program is disrupting their ability to communicate e... Read More

Thank you to everyone who contacted their Senators on the two Real ID amendments to the Immigration Bill.

Your efforts helped stop unworkable legislation that reduced every U.S. resident's due process, judicial review and privacy rights.

Click here for more information about the defeat of the Immigration Bill and next steps.

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The Senate Judiciary Committee has taken action to finally get out the truth about the administration's domestic spying program. Senator Leahy has issued subpoenas to the White House and the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. Check out the ACLU's Subpoena Watch webpage, with a checklist of what has been subpoenaed and up-to-date monitoring on what documents have been produced. ... Read More

Thousands of individuals and sixteen states have already told the federal government to dump the privacy-invasive REAL ID Act, which would standardize drivers licenses into a national ID and create databases linking the IDs together. But instead of listening to the public, members of Congress are renewing their efforts to force us all to have a national ID card – this time throu... Read More

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the government must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and search emails stored by email service providers. In reaching its decision in Warshak v. United States, the court closely followed the reasoning in an amicus brief filed in the case by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the ACLU, and the Center for Demo... Read More

The California Assembly Judiciary Committee passed five important RFID bills today, including the Identity Information Protection Act (SB 30), which ensures that no RFID tags will be embedded into state-issued IDs, without privacy and security protections. The San Jose Mercury News published a story about the bills on the front page today. You wouldn't post your social se... Read More

The issue of still photography of the public streets presents the need to balance two important civil liberties issues- the right to privacy and the free speech right to photography in public spaces which has also been under assault since 9/11. Read More

A new reporter's shield law, the Free Flow of Information Act, has been introduced in Congress. It would protect a broader group of people than earlier versions, including bloggers. It covers anyone engaged in journalism, such as gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting or publishing of news or information. Read More

What was the Copley Press decision and what did it do?On August 29, 2006, the California Supreme Court in Copley Press v. Superior Court held that records of an administrative appeal of sustained misconduct charges are confidential and may not be disclosed to the public. The decision prevents the public from learning the extent to which police officers have been disciplined as a result of miscondu... Read More

Google's new Street View service, which allows users of Google Maps to view and navigate street-level images may help some people get around, but it raises serious privacy concerns for individuals who are unwittingly captured by Google's candid cameras. Several websites have already taken up the sport of posting links to snapshots of the streets preserved by Google's camera vans. ... Read More