News & Commentary

The Develop for Privacy Challenge, organized by the ACLUs of Northern California and Washington, the Tor Project, and the Information & Privacy Commissioner's Office of Ontario, was launched to highlight some of the best privacy-enhancing mobile apps out there—apps that improve, rather than erode, our ability to protect and control our own private information. After our judges evaluated many qualified applicants, we were delighted to recognize secure chat and instant messaging app Gibberbot as our inaugural Challenge winner, and to fly a representative of the development team out to Las Vegas to accept the award and discuss the app at our awards ceremony held during DEF CON 19.

If you're using LinkedIn, you're probably doing so to connect with peers and colleagues, explore new business relationships, or even network for your next career move. Chances are you didn't join LinkedIn so you could tell your boss or your colleagues which products or brands you like. But LinkedIn's new "social advertising" feature does exactly that: it takes your name or photo and connects that to ads that your friends and colleagues see based on your groups, contacts, and personal content. Worse yet, this feature was turned on by default, requiring you to find the right settings to opt out.

By Allie BohmACLU National Office

Today, the House Judiciary Committee is voting whether to approve legislation that would create a sweeping new provision requiring Internet companies (email, cloud, social networking, and more) to collect and retain hundreds of millions of records about the identity of online users. The bill, HR 1981, the "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011," – if only it were that narrow! – is a direct assault on the privacy of Internet users and overlooks some key fixes that could actually help to address the very real problem of child exploitation.

By Jay StanleyACLU National Office

Google released its new transparency report this week, revealing that U.S. government demands for the personal information of Google's users, like chat records or emails, continue to rise. The report serves to emphasize the heightened importance of increased transparency about how often the government is accessing sensitive information about who we are, where we go, what we do and why.

Catherine CrumpACLU National Office

Yesterday, California lawmakers took an important step towards updating reader privacy for the digital age. The California Assembly Judiciary Committee passed the Reader Privacy Act of 2011 (SB 602) with a bipartisan vote of 8-2.

Yasir Afifi, a 20-year-old U.S.-born citizen, found a strange device attached to his car. When he posted a photo of it online, the FBI showed up at his home and wanted their GPS tracking device back. The FBI had been tracking Afifi's movements without a warrant.