News & Commentary

President Obama's response to the troubling news of indiscriminate government collection of communication information is meant to be reassuring: the NSA is operating under supervision by all three branches of government. Even if this were true, and it is not, this purported defense should make us more nervous, not less, because it suggests that, in Washington, it has become business as usual to withhold basic information from the American public about what powers of surveillance the government claims it can lawfully use.

Law enforcement agencies are increasingly using sophisticated cameras, called “automated license plate readers” or ALPR, to scan and record the license plates of millions of cars across the country.

Last year was jam-packed with stories of companies making costly mistakes on user privacy and free speech. To help companies get a fresh start in 2013, the ACLU of California has just released the new edition of Privacy and Free Speech: It's Good for Business.

By Naomi Gilens, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project Justice Department documents released today by the ACLU reveal that federal law enforcement agencies are increasingly monitoring Americans’ electronic communications, and doing so without warrants, sufficient oversight, or meaningful accountability.

By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project The ACLU of Michigan recently put out an interesting report on surveillance cameras. Like other ACLU reports on cameras (such as those by our affiliates in Illinois and Northern California, and the materials on our national site) it summarizes the policy arguments against cameras. But it also focuses on a uniquely disturbing application of surveillance cameras: their deployment in residential neighborhoods.

By Yaman Salahi, Arthur Liman fellow This is the second in a two-part series of posts covering the impact of proposed changes to two major Los Angeles Police Department programs related to intelligence-gathering. Do you know who your Facebook friends are? Now that the Los Angeles Police Commission has approved new guidelines that allow LAPD to vastly expand its online spying operations, you should think twice.

By Allie Bohm, ACLU Nationwide It’s been over a year since 35 ACLU affiliates filed over 380 public records requests with state and local law enforcement agencies seeking information about their policies, procedures, and practices for tracking cell phones. And 13 months later (and in the wake of this front page article in the New York Times), we’re still handling responses. We’ve posted the latest batch of documents received on our interactive webmap; here are highlights:

View video on NY Times site. By Laura Poitras, New York Times It took me a few days to work up the nerve to phone William Binney. As someone already a “target” of the United States government, I found it difficult not to worry about the chain of unintended consequences I might unleash by calling Mr. Binney, a 32-year veteran of the National Security Agency turned whistle-blower. He picked up. I nervously explained I was a documentary filmmaker and wanted to speak to him. To my surprise he replied: “I’m tired of my government harassing me and violating the Constitution. Yes, I’ll talk to you.”

Most school districts are failing to provide students, teachers and staff with clear policies that balance students’ legal right to privacy with the need for safety and order, warns a new ACLU of California report,“H-E-L-L-O: Students have a right to privacy in their cell phones.” As cell phones become more and more indispensable to young people, confiscation and searches of students’ phones by school authorities has become widespread. Because such searches provide a window into every aspect of a students’ private life, they violate the laws that protect students’ privacy rights.