I wrote in Tech Policy Press about the tech industry's Tobacco-style campaign to undermine privacy and stop states from passing stronger laws.

We know that Big Tech wants to sabotage privacy law. But look at whose footsteps they're following.

🧵 1/ https://www.techpolicy.press/big-tech-is-trying-to-burn-privacy-to-the-ground-and-theyre-using-big-tobaccos-strategy-to-do-it/

Boosts 🚀 appreciated!

Gag order lifted. So now we can talk about how the SFPD, once again, issued an illegal search warrant to Indybay seeking unpublished journalistic materials even though California law bars search warrants against journalists

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/victory-eff-helps-resist-unlawful-warrant-and-gag-order-issued-independent-news

San Francisco Police have more racial disparity in deadly force than 92% of big-city police departments. We need more accountability, not less. Vote #NoOnPropE by Tuesday.

source: https://policescorecard.org/ca/police-department/san-francisco. #SFPol

Buying residents’ geolocation data? A swarm of police drones overhead? Robot dogs? San Francisco Police could pursue any of these and much more without accountability under Prop E, EFF’s Saira Hussain tells @reasonmagazine. #NOPEonE https://reason.com/2024/02/22/proposition-e-would-make-it-easier-for-police-to-surveil-san-francisco/

In the wake of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, we along with partners @eff rang the alarm on California police agencies that were sharing driver locations with agencies in states with anti-abortion laws. Now we’re calling out state agencies that continue to do so in defiance of California’s driver privacy law. How we got here: https://www.aclunc.org/blog/californians-fought-hard-driver-privacy-protections-why-are-police-refusing-follow-them

Check out this reporting on our recent letter to California’s attorney general calling out police agency defiance of the state’s driver privacy law. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/02/some-calif-cops-still-sharing-license-plate-info-with-anti-abortion-states/

Companies and legislators are using misleading test scores to justify the expansion of facial recognition by government agencies. In a new piece, ACLU data scientist Marissa Gerchick and I explain why there is no such thing as a "magic number" that will prevent the harms associated with government use of this tech. https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/when-it-comes-to-facial-recognition-there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-magic-number

If you live in San Francisco, please vote in March and vote NO on Prop E: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/01/san-francisco-vote-no-proposition-e-stop-police-testing-dangerous-surveillance

Amazon seems to have (quietly) gone back on its promise not to sell facial recognition to law enforcement.

Remember: temporary corporate beneficence is not a substitute for real laws to protect people. Ban it.

https://fedscoop.com/doj-fbi-amazon-rekognition-technology-ai-use-case/

Police used a DNA sample to extrapolate the supposed face of a murder suspect—a controversial technique.

Then they tried to feed *that* pic into face recognition software to get an ID. Total pseudoscience.

Wild find by @dmehro in @ddosecrets’s Blue Leaks.

https://www.wired.com/story/parabon-nanolabs-dna-face-models-police-facial-recognition/

Hidden in SFPD’s latest report on its surveillance using private cameras: police requested access to cameras in Golden Gate Park during the 2023 Outside Lands music festival.

Thousands of law-abiding people potentially monitored and recorded.

A case study in dragnet surveillance. https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/breed-surveillance-camaras-18603519.php

SFPD's surveillance via private cameras is increasing, but its own reports don’t show whether the cameras actually benefit public safety. What they do show is an SFPD willing to aim cameras at everything from concerts to protests against police violence. https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/breed-surveillance-camaras-18603519.php

Cops blanketed San Francisco in geofence warrants. Read my colleague @snowjake’s months-long investigation and breakdown of the broad array of people and places that were swept up in SFPD's dragnet searches. https://www.aclunc.org/blog/cops-blanketed-san-francisco-geofence-warrants-google-was-right-protect-peoples-privacy

The FTC has banned Rite Aid from using face recognition in its stores for 5 yrs, saying its “reckless” use led to 1000s of false matches, accusations of shoplifting, and even calls to cops.

A BIG warning to businesses deploying this tech on the public. Even in states without biometric privacy laws, this matters. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/12/rite-aid-banned-using-ai-facial-recognition-after-ftc-says-retailer-deployed-technology-without

Social media platforms have promised for years that they protect their users from government surveillance. Are they keeping those promises?

TODAY: ACLU of Northern California, the Brennan Center for Justice, and the ACLU called on the FTC to investigate. https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/the-federal-trade-commission-must-investigate-meta-and-x-for-complicity-with-government-surveillance

Victory! AG Bonta confirms that state law forbids police from sharing the information collected by automatic license plate readers outside of California.
 
We have taken this position for years, fighting to stop ICE, CBP, and states that criminalize reproductive care from obtaining maps of where we drive.
 
Privacy keeps us safe. https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-advises-california-law-enforcement-legal-uses-and

The government should not be using algorithms to scrutinize our social media posts and decide which of us is "risky."

Check out this @404mediaco story on social media surveillance docs obtained by our @ACLU_NorCal team + @ACLU. https://www.404media.co/inside-ices-database-derogatory-information-giant-oak-gost/

the easiest way to become radicalized about astronomy is to open a stargazing app and to make it highlight Starlink satellites

Berkeley just approved a citywide driver surveillance system that the FBI agents tracking UC-affiliated activists in ‘Oppenheimer’ could’ve only dreamed of.

Read my op-ed on the city’s mistake (and how to fix it) in the Daily Californian. https://dailycal.org/2023/08/10/berkeley-fails-to-learn-key-surveillance-lessons-within-oppenheimer/

Our client anonymously called a wealthy pharma exec a "piece of shit."

The exec then made an extraordinary & inappropriate demand for our client's identity from Google.

We fired back in court, and the exec backed down. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/in-free-speech-win-millionaire-withdraws-attempt-to-identify-anonymous-online-critic