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On a crisp Saturday in March 2009, Lily Haskell set out to join a peace rally in San Francisco to oppose the Iraq war. What she didn't know at the time was that by the end of the day, she would be forced to turn a DNA sample over to be placed in a national databank. During the demonstration, Haskell was arrested on suspicion of trying to help another protester held by police–a felony. She was h... Read More

Remember hairspray and side ponytails, walkmen and Atari, stirrup pants and legwarmers? They all made a comeback Wednesday night at the ACLU of Northern California's dotRights "Party Like It's 1986" bash.80s fashion and music like Bon Jovi's 1986 hit "Livin' on a Prayer" underscored just how outdated electronic privacy law is, and that it's high time for better privacy protection.The Electronic Co... Read More

Good evening. My name is Kelli Evans and I am the new Associate Director of the ACLU of Northern California. I am also a civil rights attorney and have spent a number of years working on police accountability and integrity issues across the country. I want to thank Commissioner DeJesus for inviting me here to speak tonight.Last week I sent Lieutenant Reilly a memorandum prepared by my office for i... Read More

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU-NC) proudly announces that distinguished civil rights attorney Kelli M. Evans has joined the leadership of the organization as Associate Director. Evans' career as a civil rights attorney includes serving as federal court-appointed Monitor of the Oakland Police Department, as a senior trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the... Read More

A Freedom of Information Act request was filed by the ACLU of Northern California and others seeking records relating to federal government activity in connection to the FBI's investigation of Muslim communities. The groups seek records related to domestic intelligence practices including the use of informants and infiltrators (such as those reportedly used in gyms, community centers and mosques),... Read More

Many people are surprised to learn that it costs more to sentence someone to execution than permanent imprisonment, also known as life without parole. This page highlights key findings from the ACLU-NC's report The Hidden Death Tax: The Secret Cost of Seeking Executions in California to answer some frequently asked questions about the costs of California's death penalty system.Click to v... Read More

We spent the last few days in the middle of the exciting whirlwind of the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) festival in Austin, Texas. The festival is one of the largest and most influential gatherings of technology and new media players in the world, and we thought that it would be an important and receptive audience for our online privacy message.Were we ever right!In addition to presenting... Read More

Federal Judge Vaughn Walker ruled yesterday that the ACLU and Equality California must turn over campaign documents, including internal e-mails and memos, even though the groups are not parties to the legal challenge brought by Ted Olson and David Boies seeking to strike Prop 8. Read More

The ACLU filed an amicus brief yesterday to the Supreme Court in the case of City of Ontario v. Quon. At stake in this case is whether public employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy for the text messages they send on devices owned by their employers. But at stake more broadly is the balance between employer access and employee privacy in a world where communications via computers, email... Read More

Today, Facebook released proposed changes to its privacy policy and its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Facebook's newest changes seem to be designed to encourage users to share more information with applications and sites that they visit and use, which fits in with the string of other changes that have been happening on Facebook and with Mark Zuckerberg's world view on changing social n... Read More