The 2023 legislative season in CA’s state capital has come to a close. Oakland Privacy intervened on your behalf on over 65 bills (a world record), piping up in support, opposition or demanding changes. Our final batting average in sign/veto…
The Chrome Privacy campaign sought to intervene in Google’s reworking of advertising cookies to increase user privacy. Um….. that didn’t work. Google’s long-running “Privacy Sandbox” is more like a privacy tar pit. It does inhibit the activities of third party…
The AMEMSA Justice Collective is a new statewide coalition that seeks to advance civil rights protections for Asian , Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian communities. The AJC is directed by and accountable to AMEMSA communities and seeks to organize…
With the explosion of surveillance data being harvested across many different sectors, fusion centers were built to consolidate the multiple streams of surveillance data into information-sharing hubs that include local, state, federal, and private entities. Each state has at least…
In September 2023, anti-surveillance activists from across the country (Chicago, Portland, and Northern and Southern California) came together to discuss gunshot detection and leading manufacturer Shotspotter (now known as “SoundThinking”). The panel was hosted by POP Pasadena and featured Mohammed…
The San Leandro City Council voted 4-3 to reject, for now, a police proposal to double the number of license plate readers in the East Bay town from 41 to 82. The initial 41 were approved in 2022, but just…
Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), a program developed by the Obama administration, sought to combat radicalization, then defined almost entirely as Muslim-based violent extremism, through using schools and social service agencies to “identify” potential terrorists based on somewhat poorly defined characteristics.…
As organizations that believe in the power of the right of privacy as an enabler of free speech and freedom of the press, we call on all governments to: Read the full letter here.
In the Chicago lawsuit filed by Michael Williams, a Chicago resident who served 9 months in jail before charges against him were dismissed, gunshot detection manufacturer Shotspotter released a 19-page operational document to the plaintiffs. The document was the only…
On November 21st, the newly filled out Federal Trade Commission accepted written comments on an Announcement of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) that asked a sweeping set of questions about what to do about the commercial data economy in the United States.…