Shotspotter Gunshot Detection

Oakland Shotspotter Contract Renewal

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Controversial gunshot detection technology Shotspotter is up for contract renewal for the next three years in Oakland. The system depends on outdoor microphones that ping when exposed to a loud noise that might be a gunshot and a dispatch system that sends an immediate alert to the Oakland Police Department. The system sent at least 8,300 alerts in 2023, so upwards of 22 a day on average.

The tech has come under significant criticism in recent years: for repetitively sending police into low-income neighborhoods where the sensors are place and pumped up for violence that may or may not exist, for high rates of false alarms, for distracting police from real 911 calls to chase electronic beeps, and for altering forensic reports to support police narratives after the fact.

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Data Privacy, Drones, Facial Recognition, Internet of Things, Police Militarization, Public Records, Social Media

2024 State Legislature Wrap-up

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It is now past the end of the road for the 2024 state legislative year, so we wanted to report back to you on what happened, what OP did, and what new laws are coming your way. It was the year of artificial intelligence bills, so we will start there and then look at our three traditional areas of focus: consumer privacy, policing and surveillance and governmental transparency. According to our records, OP intervened on 79 potential laws this past year. 20 bills we supported were enacted into law. 25 bills we opposed were defeated.

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Drones

SFPD Violates State Military Equipment Law

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The San Francisco Police Department has confirmed in writing that they acquired 6 DJI drones in May of 2024, without requesting Board of Supervisors authorization or getting an approved use policy as required by State Law (AB 481-2021-Chiu).

We are not surprised as language in Proposition E, as we pointed out earlier this year, purported to authorize drone usage outside the state’s required military equipment procurement process. As we stated, (and informed the City) – “A local ballot intitiative cannot alter state law when the state law governs charter counties by statute and AB 481 does so”.

We’re not sure why SFPD and City Attorney Chiu, who authored AB 481 when in the Assembly, want to waste taxpayer money getting a judge to order them to follow state law.

Facial Recognition

Opt Out of Clearview AI Giveaway

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Clearview AI, the notorious facial recognition software that scraped pictures from the world’s social media and then sold them to the police for a perpetual line-up, has been hit with a blizzard of well-deserved litigation. Cases from all over the country were consolidated, and a class action settlement was proposed. It’s a doozy – and not in a good way.

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Data Privacy

$115 Million Dollar Settlement in Katz-Lacabe v. Oracle Privacy Lawsuit

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A class action lawsuit against Oracle Corporation for violating state and federal privacy laws by asssembling digital dossiers on people and selling them was settled for $115 million dollars. OP member Mike Katz-Lacabe was a primary named plaintiff.

Oracle assembled profiles on where people browsed online, and where they did their banking, bought gas, dined out, shopped and used their credit cards and then used the data in IDGraph which created “relevant personalized experiences”. Oracle has since discontinued IDGraph.

As part of the settlement, Oracle agreed to not to gather user-generated information from URLs of previously visited websites, or text that users enter in online forms other than on Oracle’s own websites.

The settlement covers people whose personal information Oracle collected or sold since Aug. 19, 2018.

News Coverage

Reuters: Oracle Reaches 115 Million Consumer Privacy Settlement

The Register: Oracle Coughs Up 115 Million Dollars To Make Privacy Case Go Away

Bloomberg: Oracle Will Pay 115 Million Dollars to Settle Customer Tracking Lawsuit

PPC Land: Oracle’s 115 Million Privacy Settlement Reshapes Data Collection Landscape

Data Privacy

Why I Opposed AB 3080

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by Saoirse Grace, 2024 Privacy Rights Fellow

Much has been written about the legal, social, and practical reasons AB 3080 must be stopped. I agree—it must be. For those unfamiliar, AB 3080 is a bill in the California state legislature that proposes to force Adult Industry content providers to verify users’ age. As of August 18 the bill did not emerge from the suspense file in the Appropriations Committee. But we can assume this won’t be the last try. One thing that is missing from this discourse is how people weaponize concepts like morality, a desire to protect children, and urgency in order to create a state of affairs in which laws that would otherwise be plainly outlandish can take root.

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