Update: On April 27, the Vallejo City Council voted unanimously to move ahead with a citizen advisory board on surveillance and policing technology. The council plans to finalize adoption at the July 13 city council meeting after the adoption of…
A leak out of notorious facial recognition vendor Clearview AI to Buzzfeed News has led to a list of some 1800 police agencies where officers “tested” or “tried out” the service, running images through the facial recognition service which is…
by Sara Zimmerman Update: 3/31/2021 Berkeley High School parents were informed that the monitoring of what websites students visited has been put on indefinite hold. Parents will retain the ability to ban certain websites on school-issued devices. Students at Berkeley…
Oakland Privacy was honored to receive a 2021 James Madison Award from the Norcal Chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists for our lawsuit and advocacy with the City of Vallejo and their purchase of a cell site simulator. As…
Aaron Swartz Day Police Surveillance Project (a satellite public transparency project run by Aaron Swartz Day and inspired by Oakland Privacy) and Open the Government (a DC-based transparency org) have filed a joint lawsuit against the Long Beach Police Department…
40 civil rights and immigration groups, including Oakland Privacy, wrote to the Biden Administration about plans to replace physical walls with surveillance walls at the Mexico border. The letter expressed concerns about a sharp increase in biometric data collection, immigrants…
In June of 2016, Santa Clara County became the first municipality in the country to adopt a surveillance transparency ordinance, also known as CCOPS. Santa Clara’s ordinance, being the first one, is comprehensive. On January 26, 2021, the Santa Clara…
Senate Bill 210 passed the California Senate Judiciary Committee on March 23 by a 9-1 vote. A bill has been introduced in the CA State Legislature to refocus California’s ubiquitous automated license plate readers from tracking the movements of every…
In a busy surveillance day at the Oakland City Council, the council approved a use policy for drone use in Oakland. The city currently does not own any drones, but has borrowed from the stable of drones owned by the…
After a 2 year long process, AB 1185, which allows either a county board of supervisors (by vote) or county residents (by referendum) to set up a sheriff oversight board with subpoena power, is a law. On the last day…