Privacy Matters | Privacy SOS

Cambridge is close to passing a strong surveillance oversight ordinance. Help us cross the finish line.

08/06/2018 - Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Biometrics, Data Mining, Dissent, Drug Wars, Freedom of Speech, Law Reform, Police Militarization

The ACLU, Digital Fourth, Cambridge residents, and other advocates have been organizing to pass a strong surveillance oversight ordinance in Cambridge, Massachusetts since the fall of 2016. This summer, we are close to crossing the finish line. On August 13, 2018, the...
Hear no evil, see no evil: Amazon pledges to continue selling face surveillance tech to cops

07/31/2018 - Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Biometrics, Corporate Spying, Freedom of Speech, Mass Surveillance, Police Militarization, Racism, Security Theater

Last week, the ACLU of Northern California revealed that Amazon’s Rekognition face surveillance software identified 28 members of Congress as people who have been previously arrested for a crime. The only problem? They were false matches. Unsurprisingly, the 28 members of Congress...
Trump administration pushes warrantless surveillance bill, and we must stop it

07/13/2018 - Drones, Freedom of Speech, Law Reform, Mass Surveillance, Security Theater

Last week, DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen celebrated US independence by publishing an op-ed in the Washington Post calling on Congress to pass an Orwellian surveillance law. The measure, Senator Ron Johnson’s “S.2836 – Preventing Emerging Threats Act of 2018,” would enable the...
Technology news you can use

07/03/2018 - Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Corporate Spying, DHS, DoD, Drones, Immigration, Law Reform, Racism, Security Theater

BIG TECH EMPLOYEES ARE MAKING NOISE// From Wired: Why Tech Worker Dissent is Going Viral Tech workers are fed up, and they are fighting back. In response to the administration’s deplorable actions at the border and throughout the country, workers at big...
Digital is different: How the Carpenter case will revolutionize Fourth Amendment law in the 21st century

07/02/2018 - Corporate Spying, Data Mining, Internet of Things, Law Reform, Mass Surveillance, Mobile Security

Last week’s Supreme Court decision in Carpenter is one of the most important privacy rulings in the Court’s history. In a 5-4 opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts, the Court sided with Mr. Carpenter and his ACLU lawyers, holding that the government...
Boston residents demand community control over police surveillance at packed City Council hearing

06/27/2018 - Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Biometrics, Data Mining, Dissent, Drones, Drug Wars, FBI, Immigration, Law Reform, Mass Surveillance, New COINTELPRO, Police Militarization, Racism, Secrecy, Security Theater, Terror Wars, Youth Rights

In a hearing last week at the Boston City Council, police leaders signaled that they would support a measure to require community control over police surveillance, and community advocates highlighted extreme racial disparities in policing in Boston as a primary driver of...
Amazon workers demand the company stop selling face surveillance tech to police

06/22/2018 - Algorithms, Biometrics, Corporate Spying, Data Mining, DHS, Immigration, Law Reform, Mass Surveillance

On the heels of similar demands from the ACLU and 70+ civil rights, community, religious, and racial justice groups, Amazon workers have called on CEO Jeff Bezos to stop selling Rekognition face surveillance technology to police departments. The workers also demand that...
Is the FCC’s coziness with Big Telecom making Americans vulnerable to hacking and surveillance?

06/04/2018 - Corporate Spying, Mass Surveillance, Mobile Security

The Supreme Court will soon decide whether law enforcement must get a warrant to obtain historical cell site location records, which show where mobile phones (and their users) have been over a period of months or years. But even if SCOTUS mandates...
Amazon should follow Google’s lead and stop selling face surveillance tech to cops

06/02/2018 - Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Biometrics, Corporate Spying, Dissent, Mass Surveillance, Police Militarization, Racism

In response to internal and external protest and expressions of revulsion, Google yesterday announced it would stop contracting with the Department of Defense to provide artificial intelligence technology to the US military. Google’s move is a rare instance in which one of...
Technology news you can use

05/21/2018 - Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Corporate Spying, Data Mining, FBI, Internet Freedom, Law Reform

SENATE VOTES TO REINSTATE NEUTRALITY // From The Hill: Senate votes to save net neutrality rules Thanks to Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey’s leadership, last week the US Senate voted 52-47 to overturn the FCC’s decision to end net neutrality. The bill now moves...