Data Privacy

Facts and Fiction on the California Invasion of Privacy Act and the problematic SB 690

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by Don Marti and Robert Tauler

While other states debate private right of action in privacy laws, California already has one, and it’s working for us. Since it was enacted the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) has included an individual’s right to bring a civil suit when someone surreptitiously tracks them, allowing for more robust privacy enforcement than any other state.

CIPA was ahead of its time, but some special interests want to weaken it. California Senate Bill 690, which passed the state Senate in June, would eliminate some of CIPA’s protections entirely if the surveillance was done for a “business purpose.” Unfortunately, a lot of Big Tech and data broker misinformation has come along with the bill, so we are taking the opportunity to clear the air.

Below are the fictions being advanced by Big Tech’s lobbying efforts, which we clarify with the facts.

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Transparency Ordinance

An SF Supervisor Wants To Make SF’s Surveillance Transparency Law Unenforceable

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San Francisco supervisor Matt Dorsey, a former police department public affairs official, is taking aim at San Francisco’s 2019 surveillance transparency ordinance and facial recognition ban by trying to strip the provision that pays attorney fees for people who enforce the law in court. 

If Dorsey’s ordinance passes, then only individually wealthy people would be able to bring suits in response to violations. We will largely be left with SF city government policing itself. 

Eliminating attorney fees eliminates public accountability and sanctions lawlessness. 

Use this easy one-click action to tell the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to vote NO on the Dorsey proposal.

Social Media

What The TikTok Ban Was Really About (Its not National Security or Privacy)

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by Yadi Younse

Chinese state media painted the U.S. Federal Government’s threats to ban TikTok if it is not sold to an American company as a “smash and grab” – and they weren’t wrong. 

While the U.S. government alleged that TikTok is a national security risk and collects troves of personal data, it never enforced its ban or regulated the collection of personal information by TikTok and other social media platforms.  The government could establish federal privacy laws that apply to TikTok and other social media platforms which would have been good for users – but that would not have been good for the companies making millions off user data. This was never about privacy, national security or killing TikTok. It’s was about eliminating competition, handing an asset to a billionaire, and facilitating the further monopoly of American social media big tech.

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Uncategorized

Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission (PAC) Needs New Commissioners

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by Lou Katz

Established over 10 years ago as a response to an attempt to blanket Oakland with a surveillance apparatus called the “Domain Awareness Center” (DAC) which would cover Oakland with cameras and microphones. Oakland’s PAC is one of the few actually functioning civilian oversight bodies in the country.

The commission’s charter, described on the city’s website
(https://www.oaklandca.gov/Government/Boards-Commissions/Privacy-Advisory-Commission)
is to review city activies with regards to privacy and surveillance and to recommend to the City Council on the balance between the costs and the possible harms due to loss of privacy and the gains due to the increased capture of information about people in Oakland.

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Uncategorized

CA Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR) and ICE

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Update: Crowdsourced public efforts have led to similar reports from all over the state. 404 Media broke the story of the Border Patrol Flock Safety “pilot” which gave access to agency data in states forbidding law enforcement data from being shared with ICE. Law enforcement agencies were not notified, causing them to break their state’s laws and even agencies that specifically prohibited federal data sharing had their data accessed.

In the wake of this, several cities have moved to remove their Flock ALPR, most notably Denver and the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors have moved to severely restrict the Sheriff’s retention period, one of the longest in California and in fact, the entire country.

Media Coverage:

June 2025: Cal Matters: CA Police Illegally Sharing License Plate Reader Data With ICE

July 2025: KPBS Midday Edition: Why Are California Police Illegally Sharing License Plate Data?

July 2025: SF Standard: SF, Oakland Cops Illegally Funneled License Plate Data to Feds

July 2025: Lookout Santa Cruz: Santa Cruz, Capitola and Watsonville Pledged Not to Cooperate With Ice.

August 2025: 404 Media: Border Patrol Had Access to 80,000 Flock Cameras Nationwide

October 2025 Lost Coast Outpost: Humboldt County Sheriff Violating ALPR Laws

October 2025: 404 Media: ICE, Secret Service and Navy All Had Access to Flock Cameras

October 2025: Cal Matters: LA Moves to Limit License Plate Tracking

October 2025: UW Center for Human Rights: Leaving the Door Wide Open

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Oakland Privacy has raised issues with the use of Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR) repeatedly in the past, most significantly to identify them as a tool for mass surveillance amid the rapid expansion of ALPR use in the last decade. 

Over that same period, state officials have recognized the perils and pitfalls of ALPR use and have made various attempts to further regulate them, including conducting an audit which found law enforcement flouting current ALPR law and not protecting people’s privacy.

It comes as no surprise then that ALPR data continues to be misused and continues to put people at risk. Oakland Privacy Research Director Mike Katz-Lacabe recently filed records request with several California law enforcement agencies that requested audit logs for ALPR from Flock transparency portals. 

The first response received was from the Riverside County Sheriff Office. While we would have preferred to wait to receive more responses before publicizing our findings, given what is currently happening with ICE raids in California, we decided that it was important to give the public the information we collected showing that California law enforcement agencies are sharing ALPR data with ICE, and other unknown entities for unknown reasons.

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Uncategorized

Pasadena’s Lack Of Transparency Regarding The Eaton Fire

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The Eaton Fire broke out a mere 72 hours after the Rose Parade floats and hundreds of thousands of guests left Pasadena after the 2025 Rose Parade.

It has been more than 140 days since the devastating Los Angeles Fires, and the City of Pasadena has yet to hold a public hearing at either City Council or the Public Safety Committee to report on the City’s response to the Eaton Fire. 

As a resident who lives directly below Eaton Canyon and was forced to evacuate due to the fire, it is doubly important to me that government be transparent and be accountability for their actions. Instead, calls from the public for dialogue with constituents have gone unanswered. My personal asks to Pasadena Fire and Emergency Services relating to current pending safety issues where I live have been met with defensive indignation.

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