BEWARE OF THE BOTS From the New York Times: The Follower Factory On January 27th, the New York Times released a report on the sale of bots and social media identity theft. The investigation found that Devumi, a social media “influence” company, routinely...
Reporter Zach Whittaker noticed that on December 29, Amazon quietly posted its year-end transparency report, providing the public with basic information about government demands for its users information during the first six months of 2017. The report confirms that law enforcement continues...
At around 1:10pm eastern time this afternoon, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai cast the deciding vote to eliminate net neutrality rules established in 2015 under Obama’s FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler. Pai, a former Verizon lobbyist who recently joked (ha-ha) that he is a...
Today the ACLU argues Carpenter v. United States before the Supreme Court. At the heart of the argument is this question: Do we have a constitutionally protected privacy interest in our cell phone location data? More specifically, can the government access this...
You know how your electric bill works, right? Your power company supplies and delivers electricity to your home and you get charged for what you use, not how you use it. Your power company doesn’t care if you run three vacuums, cool...
The Massachusetts House is set to vote on a criminal justice reform bill today. Advocates of new surveillance powers are pushing hard to pass wiretap amendments on the House side, despite their defeat in the Senate late last month. Please take action...
Video cameras inside bedrooms. Informants wearing tiny wires, capturing video and audio of everything you say. A government bug hidden somewhere in your office’s conference room, exposing your business to the listening ears of police and prosecutors. For decades in Massachusetts, these...
Last night, Cambridge residents and city leadership met to discuss next steps for a surveillance oversight ordinance. The vibe in the room was optimistic. It was a rare moment of political harmony in a country beset by division. The Police Commissioner, the...
The Boston Police Department bought three drones without informing the City Council or the people of Boston. Officers were seen testing a drone in a low-income, community of color in Jamaica Plain. The Department doesn’t have a privacy policy to govern the...
After working with the ACLU, ACLU supporters, and local allies like Digital Fourth in Somerville for over a year, Mayor Curtatone has released a new policy to ensure democratic oversight and transparency pertaining to surveillance technology acquisitions. The policy requires a three...