Update: On October 15th, the Berkeley City Council approved an amendment to their surveillance transparency ordinance banning the use of facial recognition technology, except when from an outside source, unsolicited and tied to a specific individual crime. The Council also…
Author: Tracy Rosenberg
Close The Camps at Palantir 9/13
Bay Area activists continue to picket and protest at the headquarters of Palantir Technologies, the Palo Alto software company powering the Trump Administration’s deportation regime. On one of the hottest days of the year, protestors rallied at the company’s Palo…
Associated Students at UC Berkeley Demand Termination of Shotspotter Contract
The Associated Students at UC Berkeley have passed a resolution demanding that UC Berkeley terminate their contract with SSTI, Inc, the Newark-based manufacturer of Shotspotter gunshot detection microphones.
Cracking I-Phones in Alameda
Logs received from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department show that a Cellebrite tool was used 30 times between October of 2018 and July of 2019 to access the contents of encrypted Apple devices.
Oakland Privacy – 2019 Pioneer Award
On September 12, 2019, Oakland Privacy will be honored at the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Pioneer Awards Ceremony for our surveillance activism. Press Release – EFF Press Release – Oakland Privacy
Mission Creep – Berkeley’s License Plate Readers
Update: November 12th is the day Berkeley’s automated license plate reader policy hits the council. Berkeleyside: Berkeley Is Being Bamboozled Update: On September 4, 2019, Berkeley’s Police Review Commission, which is empowered by the surveillance ordinance to provide recommendations regarding…
2018 Contract Between Law Enforcement NLETS Database and ICE-ERO
A newly-released comprehensive list of ICE contracts from 2010-2018 released by Sludge has revealed a 2018 contract between the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications Agency (NLETS) and ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations. The contract document (dated September 21 2018 PR# 192118EROLESA…
San Mateo County To Revise UOF Policies After Taser Deaths – Reportedly
On July 23, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors announced coming changes to their Use of Force (UOF) policies, partially in response to three taser fatalities at the hands of San Mateo County sheriffs in a year, most notably…
Oakland Passes Facial Recognition Ban
Following in San Francisco’s footsteps, the City of Oakland passed on first reading a modification of their Surveillance Transparency Ordinance that totally bans the use of facial recognition technology by the municipality. The municipal ban becomes the third in the…
Privacy Groups Preserve CA Consumer Privacy Act
The CA Legislature passed the California Consumer Privacy Act in a heated rush a year ago and just beat the clock for a planned statewide ballot initiative by a matter of hours. Consumer privacy advocates grumbled that the bill could…