The State of California, 21 years after the original passage of the Real ID Act of 2005, and during the most dangerous federal administration seen to date, is preparing to upload state Department of Motor Vehicles data to the private…
Author: Tracy Rosenberg
San Clemente Fights Anduril Tower Deployment
In January, the Orange County beach town became the second inland location for Customs and Border Patrol’s (CBP) march up the California coast with Anduril surveillance towers. The City Council approved a lease with the Border Patrol for land on…
Perspectives on Amending the Publicly Available Information Exemption of the California Privacy Rights Act
You probably didn’t know that between 2018 and 2020, your privacy rights under California’s state privacy law took a hit when the definition of publicly available information was made a lot bigger via ballot initiative. Now, state senator Aisha Wahab…
Privacy as an Intersectional Issue
The third legislative briefing in a 4 -webinar series by the State Privacy Coalition. Watch it here! Featuring Jason Koebler from 404Media, Julie Mao from Just Futures Law, Minsu Longiari from Powerswitch Action and Symphoni Barbee from the ACLU, moderated…
Section 702 Re-Authorization Time Again
Ever since the Section 702 addition to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 2008, privacy advocates have sought its abolition or significant reforms. Section 702 permits warrantless surveillance of the contents of the communications of Americans if one part…
What Advocates Look For in Privacy-Related Legislation
Privacy advocates throughout California got together last week to tell Sacramento politicians about what advocates look for in privacy-related legislation and regulation. Asian- Americans Advancing Justice, Tech Equity, EFF and UC Law Center for Constitutional Democracy tackled the biggest loopholes…
Privacy Fallacies: Legislative Briefing
Privacy advocates throughout California got together last week to tell Sacramento politicians about five things they think are true about privacy, but aren’t. Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, Consumer Reports, COSPR, ACLU and Oakland Privacy tackled themes like consent is enough, enforcement…
Courts Weigh In On ALPR
In quick succession, two courts weighed in on the license plate reader problem – in very different ways. In Schmidt v Norfolk, the one you’ve probably heard of, a federal court declined to reconsider the “no right to privacy in…
Automated License Plate Reader Use Doesn’t Add Up
by Tracy Rosenberg In June of 2025, Oakland Privacy received a Flock audit log from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office detailing the activity in their cloud database of license plate reader scans from the department’s owned cameras. After keyword searches…
How CA Tried to Address Algorithmic and Surveillance Pricing (Part 2)
by Samuel Leitch In 2022, a time when rents continued to soar impossibly, the company RealPage boasted that it could help landlords increase profits even further.1 How was this possible? By pooling nonpublic pricing data from clients, RealPage’s software can…