News & Commentary

On September 27, we blogged about Verizon’s attempt to discriminate based on content when it announced that it would block the text messages of NARAL. After a firestorm of bad press, Verizon quickly retreated and said that it had all been a misreading of their policy. But, whether or not companies will be able to function as a bottleneck on protected speech is at the heart of the debate over net neutrality.

In late September, US District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the PATRIOT Act's changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) violated the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures.

State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) announced today that Governor Schwarzenegger signed his Senate Bill 362, which would prohibit employers and others from forcing anyone to have a radio frequency identification (RFID) device implanted under their skin. The bill will go into effect on January 1, 2008.

Last November we learned that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been secretly compiling data on millions of innocent Americans. According to the Washington Post, the DHS has been using its Automated Targeting System (ATS) originally developed for cargo security to generate "terrorist" risk ratings on American travelers. This past August the DHS proposed a rule that would continue the controversial ATS program. In response, the ACLU has filed comments with the DHS urging that the program be scrapped because it violates not only federal law but the privacy of all innocent Americans traveling internationally.

The ATS draws information on travelers from government databases, airline passenger information, and other sources. It then uses it to analyze each person's background or behavior, and assigns them a numeric "terrorist" risk rating.

Until recently, the scope of information collected by the ATS was all but unknown. Things have become clearer since the Identity Project succeeded in getting the Department of Homeland Security to hand over ATS records on several travelers.

Over the last week, Americans in places as far as upstate New York and as nearby as downtown San Francisco have noticed ads on billboards and taxi cabs for Google's new service, Google 411.

In case you missed it on our National ACLU blog, here is an entry written by the ACLU's Catherine Crump about the government's latest attempt to censor the Internet.

A controversial new program to use spy satellites for domestic surveillance has been postponed due to concerns brought to the attention of Congress by the ACLU and other civil liberties groups.

The latest go-round in this campaign of misinformation is the new story DNI Mike McConnell was trying to sell on the Hill. He claims that the loophole in FISA was responsible for a delay in surveilling Iraqi insurgents that had kidnapped American soldiers. Which loophole? Why the very same one that the Protect America Act "fixed." Turns out, this

The federal Real ID Act doesn't have many friends these days. Eighteen states have passed legislation rejecting the law, Congress has refused to put any money into implementing it, and just this week New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer announced he, not the Feds, would determine New York's drivers license policy, with officials in his administration indicating the state might opt out of the Real ID program altogether.

The few remaining cheerleaders for this national ID system, which promises to be a nightmare for privacy and identity security, have resorted to classic doublespeak to try to salvage Real ID's reputation. On the Department of Homeland Security blog Wednesday, Secretary Michael Chertoff claims Real ID would actually pr