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ACLU of Northern CA
Blog

Pocket Protectors

Sep 26, 2008
In case you missed it on our National ACLU blog, here is an entry written by the ACLU's Matt Bors about federal policies that allow DHS to search international travelers without consent or any suspicion of wrongdoing:Previously we've discussed the push to search under travellers' clothes with the naked machine and the million nameson the terrorist watch list. The latest Civil Discourse comic exami... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Blog

Travelers’ Privacy Protection Act Introduced

Sep 29, 2008
We have blogged about the invasive new border search policies that allow copying of books, documents and data, as well as intrusive questioning, all without probable cause and in conflict with decades of legal precedents.The Travelers' Privacy Protection Act restores privacy protections, while still enabling federal border agents to retain foreign intelligence information by obtaining a warrant.Se... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
News

Governor Signs Important Disaster Victim Protection Bill

Sep 30, 2008
A bill requiring public employees who provide evacuees with disaster-related assistance to do so without asking for information or documents not strictly necessary to determine eligibility for the services, AB 2327 (Caballero), was signed into law by the governor yesterday. Civil rights organizations that had provided assistance to victims of last year's California wildfires applauded the bill. Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Blog

Celebrating Freedom to Read: Banned Books Week 2008

Oct 01, 2008
This week marks the 27th celebration of Banned Books Week, a national event promoted by the American Library Association (ALA) celebrating the freedom to read.To Kill a Mockingbird, The Color Purple, and Heather Has Two Mommies are just a few examples of material that some have tried to keep off library shelves. According to the ALA, more than 400 books were challenged this year. Among the top ten... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Blog

Governor Signs RFID Bill

Oct 02, 2008
Governor Schwarzenegger took an important first step to protect the privacy, personal safety, and financial security of millions of Californians by signing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) anti-skimming legislation into law this week.SB 31, authored by Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and the Electronic Frontier... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Blog

Paying for Chrome with Personal Data

Oct 06, 2008
Already king of the U.S. search engine hill, Google branched out into browser software with the recent release of Chrome. Unfortunately, Chrome's improvements, while alluring, come at a considerable cost in private information. Two data collection mechanisms, "Google Suggest" and usage statistics gathering, will collect massive amounts of data whenever we use the browser.Chrome does provide some o... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Blog

Hate to Say I Told You So

Oct 09, 2008
In case you missed it on our National ACLU blog, here is an entry written by the ACLU's Amanda Simon about a report sponsored by DHS concluding that data mining is entirely ineffective in preventing terrorism:Yesterday, a report on data mining was released by the Committee on Technical and Privacy Dimensions of Information for Terrorism Prevention and Other National Goals (a.k.a.: CTPDITPONG). The... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
News

Legal Victory for Municipal ID Ordinance

Oct 14, 2008
This morning, the San Francisco Superior Court dismissed a lawsuit challenging San Francisco's Municipal ID Ordinance, which establishes a program to ensure that members of the San Francisco community are not denied access to police protection and other essential City services because they lack government-issued identification. Read More