News & Commentary

New documents obtained by the ACLU of Northern California appear to show the Florida-based Harris Corporation misleading the Federal Communications Commission while seeking authorization to sell its line of Stingray cell phone surveillance gear to state and local police. The documents raise the possibility that federal regulatory approval of the technology was based on bad information. The ACLU today wrote a letter to the FCC asking for an investigation.

“BART Watch" is a new app designed to encourage users to report suspicious activities. But we’re calling out this app for its own suspicious activities - having no privacy policy that explains the sensitive information it collects and may be sharing with others, and for encouraging people to file potentially spurious complaints about innocent residents.

Get a warrant -- that’s what I would say if the police showed up at my door asking to look around. Why? Because it’s my right. It’s one of the core principles that this country was founded on: the government, including local police, can’t come into my home unless they prove to a judge that they have a real reason to invade my privacy.

A coalition of advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, sent a letter this week to the San Jose City Council demanding that it have the necessary public debate of whether a drone should ever be used in San Jose well before it starts to consider how it could be used.

It’s Time for a Public Debate and a New Vote Over San Jose Police Purchase of Drone

The San Jose City Council has approved a police request to acquire a drone – without public debate and with no policy overseeing its use.

When the government demands that your cell phone carrier reveal information about where you’ve been, or where you’re going to go, they should get a warrant. Location information is exactly the kind of sensitive information that the Fourth Amendment is supposed to protect.

Linda Lye and Nicole Ozer are legal stalwarts at the ACLU of Northern California, and for many years have advocated fiercely on behalf of privacy and free speech in our digital era. They are hard at work reining in the government’s use of technology for surveillance.

Net neutrality is a civil rights issue. The open internet that we now enjoy allows minority groups and dissenting voices to engage in the political process and tell their stories like never before, bypassing traditional big-media gatekeepers.