There’s been a lot of important technology and civil liberties news over the past week. Here’s what you may have missed. Civil Liberties Groups Caution Against Use of Facial Recognition on Body Worn Cameras Dozens of groups including the ACLU and NAACP...
The Trump administration has taken the first official step towards fulfilling its promise to conduct “extreme vetting” of visitors and immigrants. On March 30, the State Department released a proposal outlining its plan to require visa applicants to disclose all the social...
Unfortunately, Congress has begun scratching an old, FBI-inspired itch again. Staffers on the Senate Judiciary Committee, with the support of chair Senator Chuck Grassley and ranking democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein, are reportedly in talks with technology companies about legislation that would most...
States across the country, including Massachusetts, are considering legislation to ban internet service providers (ISPs) from collecting or selling their customers’ sensitive information—like browsing histories—without opt-in user consent. (Take action to support the Massachusetts bill!) But according to Cloudflare, you don’t have to...
In December 2016, the Boston City Council held a hearing to discuss the Boston Police Department’s plan to spend $1.4 million on a social media surveillance system. Police Superintendent Paul Fitzgerald and Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC) director David Carabin spoke of...
AFTERMATH OF THE NUNES MEMO: SCHUMER HITS BACK From Politico: House Intel members: Release the FISA application After the controversial release of the Nunes Memo on Friday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urged Trump to allow the House Democrats to release a...
After receiving President Trump’s formal approval, Congress today released the Nunes Memo. Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes claims his findings “raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court...
PRIVATE/PUBLIC SURVEILLANCE PARTNERSHIP TO FUEL TRUMP’S DEPORTATION MACHINE From Verge: ICE is about to start tracking license plates across the US Verge reports that Immigration Customs Enforcement is expanding its agents’ access to the country’s largest location tracking database, maintained by a private corporation...
Where do the candidates for Boston Mayor and City Council stand on policing, surveillance, and immigration? We asked them. On September 27, the ACLU—along with our coalition partners Muslim Justice League, Families for Justice as Healing, Digital Fourth, Council on American-Islamic Relations – Massachusetts, Jewish Voice...
On September 11, the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, thousands of spies, police officers, prosecutors, and surveillance profiteers will gather in Washington D.C. for a spying technology extravaganza known as ISS World Americas. On its website, the event organizers describe ISS...