On November 4, privacy experts from around the country convened at the NYU School of Law to talk about “Privacy Localism” or how local communities can fight back against the encroaching surveillance state. Oakland’s fight against the Domain Awareness Center…
Author: Tracy Rosenberg
Border Wall Contract Prohibition
On November 7, the Oakland City Council will consider a municipal ordinance to prevent any new or amended city contracts with vendors building Trump’s 2,000 mile “border wall” on the US southern border with Mexico. The ordinance was proposed by District…
42 Civil Liberties Organizations Endorse USA Rights Act
Oakland Privacy joined 41 other civil rights groups to endorse the USA Rights Acts which was introduced today to meaningfully reform Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The USA Rights Act creates a search warrant…
Thomson Reuters $13M Contract With HSI
A $13 million dollardata broker contract running from 2015 to 2020 between the West Publishing division of Thomson Reuters and Homeland Security Investigations/ICE has come to light. This proposed contract is an additional one that predates a September 2016 contract between…
4 Dozen Civil Rights Groups Demand Warrants For Section 702 Searches
On October 14, almost 4 dozen civil rights organizations (including Oakland Privacy) wrote to the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte and John Conyers about pending reform to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance…
Privacy Advisory Commission Investigation of Oakland ICE Raid Concludes Violation of Sanctuary City Policy
*Oakland’s Public Safety Committee will take up the ICE raid on November 14 at 6pm at City Hall after chair Desley Brooks and at-large council rep Rebecca Kaplan asked for the report. The Chief of Police is expected to attend.*…
Oakland Gets “Trumpintelpro” Ordinance – Civil Rights Review On All Agreements With Feds
On October 3, the Oakland City Council unanimously approved a new ordinance subjecting all local law enforcement agreements with federal partners to abide by the city’s laws and undergo civil rights and privacy reviews. The ordinance is modeled after San…
238 Groups Urge Recision of Third Muslim Ban
238 human rights organizations,(including Oakland Privacy), demanded that the White House rescind the latest iteration of the unconstitutional and discriminatory “Muslim ban” executive travel order. In an open letter released on September 27, 2017, the groups stated ““If you…
The Undue Influence of Surveillance Technology Companies on Policing
This September 2017 article in the NYU Law Review by Elizabeth Joh gives a few shoutouts to the work of Oakland’s Privacy Advisory Commission and OP member Mike Katz-Lacabe. Download the full article below. The Undue Influence – Joh
2017 Urban Shield Report Card
A dozen community members affiliated with various Bay Area nonprofit organizations observed the 2017 Urban Shield Expo and Anti-Terrorism training drill. The Stop Urban Shield coalition collated their observations and issued an event report card. The report concluded: …