News & Commentary

The FBI has withdrawn an unconstitutional national security letter issued to the Internet Archive after a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. As the result of a settlement agreement, the FBI withdrew the NSL and agreed to the unsealing of the case, finally allowing the Archive's founder to speak out for the first time about his battle against the record demand.

The ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation can today reveal their participation in a long fight with the FBI over free speech and government-imposed secrecy.

The government uses National Security Letters (NSLs) to demand access to sensitive records in the custody of Internet service providers, financial institutions, credit reporting agencies, and many other kinds of organizations. In almost all cases, recipients of the NSLs are served with gag orders that prohibit them from disclosing that they have received the letters.

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In response to a letter from the ACLU of Northern California, the Linden Unified School District will not read private text messages stored on students' cell phones unless there is good reason to believe that the search will show that a law or school rule was violated. The District's new policy also limits the scope of the search to the alleged infraction leading to the seizure of a cell phone.

The Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference is on May 20-23, 2008 at the Omni Hotel in New Haven, Connecticut. Early Bird Registration is open until this Friday, May 2.

Tomorrow, Thursday, April 24, the Sacramento Library Board will be debating its internet use policy, which directs library staff to ask Internet users to "end a search or change a screen" if the content they are viewing is deemed to interfere with the "a safe, welcoming and comfortable environment."

Is the federal government gearing up to spy on Internet users who visit .gov websites? That was one of the concerns at a hearing on the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) cybersecurity program called "EINSTEIN".

The ACLU Washington Legislative Office, the Technology and Liberty Program, and the ACLU of Northern California submitted written comments on net neutrality today to the Federal Communications Commission in preparation for this Thursday's public hearing at Stanford.