New reporting on the fallout at the University of Missouri over student protests alleging administration racism reveals that the FBI has been tracking the movements of “a significant Ferguson protester,” most likely DeRay Mckesson. Student activists and the UM football team succeeded in...
This week I have the pleasure of speaking onstage with two policy experts I respect very much. Tonight, I’ll be talking about the legality and morality of US drone operations with Andrew Bacevich. Thursday night, I’m speaking at an event where Noam...
Brandeis is hosting a bunch of great social justice related events in a series called Deis Impact. Among the many fantastic events is a screening of the 2014 documentary about the Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI’s 1971 robbery of a Media, Pennsylvania...
The National Institute for Justice is seeking applications in 2016 for a grant program focused on “research and technology development leading to the introduction into practice of new, innovative means for: collecting digital evidence from mobile devices or large-scale computer networks, or for detecting...
Please note that by playing this clip YouTube and Google will place a long term cookie on your computer. Watch a Privacy International activist and a Vice News journalist hunt stingray cell site simulators outside the Ecuadorian embassy (where Julian Assange is...
The ACLU of Massachusetts this week filed a public records request with the Boston Police Department (BPD) seeking information about its cell phone tracking technology. For too long, the department’s use of controversial cell site simulators has been shrouded in an FBI-mandated cloud of...
New Washington Post reporting describes disturbing pre-crime technology in place at the Fresno, California police department’s “real-time crime center.” The NCIC-like cop-cave plays host to license plate tracking databases, feeds from innumerable surveillance cameras, and government and corporate databases, which contain information about...
A few years back, I presented ACLU testimony before the Boston City Council, urging city officials to reject a proposal to require certain civil license applicants to send their fingerprints to the FBI for criminal background checks as a condition of employment. In...
It’s budget time again, and everyone is looking for ways to cut corners. When it comes to public transportation, cutting corners isn’t easy or advisable—especially in Boston, where the system already requires significant infrastructural investment. A number of years ago, the state...
In late December 2015, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released its “Privacy, Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Unmanned Aircraft Systems Working Group” best practices recommendations for government drone use. The 11 page document does not contain the word “warrant,” nor any...