Sex worker Julie Simone recently tried to use Airbnb for the first time, but after successfully booking an apartment received an email notifying her that her reservation had been cancelled and her account had been deleted. Fusion reports that Simone received the...
Today the ACLU of Massachusetts testified before the state legislature’s Joint Transportation Committee in support of proposals to regulate law enforcement and corporate use of license plate readers and the data they produce. If you haven’t heard of license plate readers, here’s...
We keep learning more about the FBI’s battle to force Apple to write new code to weaken its security system. I’ve done a lot of media on the issue this week. Below you can see a clip of me on BBC’s Newsnight last...
Cell Site Simulators – often referred to as Stingrays, the brand name of one popular model – gather sensitive information about cell phone users by essentially tricking their phones into thinking they are communicating with cell phone company towers, when in fact...
California congressman Ted Lieu yesterday wrote FBI director Jim Comey a public letter, asking the nation’s top cop to withdraw “the FBI’s demand of Apple” that it “create software it does not have in order to weaken its smartphone encryption system.” The...
As I blogged this morning, FBI director Jim Comey wants us to believe that his agency’s war against Apple is only about one phone, not about setting precedent that will impact all phones and all electronic devices. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. As the...
The FBI and the Obama Justice Department want courts to force Apple to act as a government spy by writing new code to break iPhone security features. FBI director Jim Comey claims he is singularly concerned with getting access to information on the...
For years, the FBI has begged congress to address what it says is a “going dark” problem. In July 2015, FBI director James Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee law enforcement needs broader powers to force companies to build “backdoors” into their encrypted systems....
The advocacy organization Color of Change is mobilizing its members to ask FCC chairman Tom Wheeler to require transparency and policy commitments before authorizing local police departments to use controversial cell site simulator technology known as stingrays. The group’s message to the...
West Springfield, MA, population 28,137, has two grenade launchers. Why? https://t.co/TLH5S8EZ6E — ACLU Massachusetts (@ACLU_Mass) July 6, 2014 Back in the summer of 2014, the ACLU of Massachusetts published a report about the militarization of the police. Based off of publicly available materials and...