Four and Counting: Berkeley Passes Facial Recognition Ban
By Michael Maharrey BERKELEY, Calif. (Oct. 16. 2019) – Yesterday, the Berkeley City Council unanimously passed a ban on law enforcement use of facial recognition…
Civil Liberties
911 Dispatchers To Monitor 30+ Million CCTV Cameras In Real-Time
By MassPrivateI 911 dispatchers are about to join the ranks of District Attorneys (DA) using CCTV cameras to monitor the public. The district attorney for Pennsylvania’s…
News from The Constitution-Free Zone: Border Patrol Using Biometrics for “Citizenship Checks” in Maine
By Joe Wright For a number of years now, I have been chronicling the ever-widening use of “The Constitution-Free Zone” by Border Patrol agents in…
Border Patrol Entering Stores And Interrogating People Who Speak Spanish
By MassPrivateI In New England, undercover federal agents are following people into stores and interrogating them simply because they are speaking a foreign language. Last…
U.S. Customs Officer Harasses “Defense One” Journalist at Dulles Airport
Activist Post Editor’s Note: As regular readers might know, we often cite Defense One‘s reporting of new developments in military and surveillance technology. We don’t…
Do I Need ID to Ride a Train?
By Edward Hasbrouck We’ve been trying for years to find out what the real story is with respect to ID requirements for travel by train,…
Victory! EFF Wins Access to License Plate Reader Data to Study How Law Enforcement Uses the Privacy Invasive Technology
San Francisco—Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California (ACLU SoCal) have reached an agreement with Los Angeles law…
School Districts Use “Gaggle” To Monitor Students’ Free Speech And Social Media Posts
By MassPrivateI Today, I give you a frightening story about free speech censorship and watchlists just in time for the countdown to Halloween. A recent…
Facial Recognition Smart Streetlights Raise Concerns
By Sean Walton What began as a way to increase public safety has turned into a civil rights concern. Some residents of San Diego, California…
Taxpayers to Be Held Liable After Cops Steal Man’s Phone, Film Themselves Conspiring to Frame Him
By Matt Agorist Hartford, CT — On September 11, 2015, journalist and police accountability activist Michael Picard was illegally detained for lawfully open carrying and…
Tech and Police Groups Urge Lawmakers Not to Ban Facial Recognition
By Sean Walton The question of who has the right to use facial recognition technology, and when, has taken a decidedly political turn in recent…
South Africa Bans Bulk Collection. Will the U.S. Courts Follow Suit?
By Cindy Cohn The High Court in South Africa has issued a watershed ruling: holding that South African law currently does not authorize bulk surveillance….
The FISA Oversight Hearing Confirmed That Things Need to Change
By India McKinney Section 215, the controversial law at the heart of the NSA’s massive telephone records surveillance program, is set to expire in December….
European Court’s Decision in Right To Be Forgotten Case is a Win for Free Speech
By David Greene In a significant victory for free speech rights, the European Union’s highest court ruled that the EU’s Right to Be Forgotten does…
