On January 29th, San Francisco supervisor Aaron Peskin introduced the Stop Secret Surveillance Ordinance in the City and County of San Francisco. The surveillance transparency measure follows the November 2018 passage of Proposition B, a “Privacy First” initiative approved by…
Type Investigations, formerly the Investigative Fund, looked into what happens when a city goes ahead and builds a Domain Awareness Center without a transparency ordinance in place. St Louis did that with their “Real Time Crime Center”. Here is what…
When I sit back and try to think about all the ways that modern consumer technology has entered our lives, I keep coming back to the idea of control.
Are you concerned you’re not getting enough exercise? Count your steps with a smart watch.
Are you worried about burglars breaking in and stealing your stuff? Think about installing a cloud-based camera in your living room. Could your child be abducted on their way to school today? Be responsible and equip them with a GPS tracker. In a world that seems increasingly chaotic, we’re being offered more ways than ever to minimize risk. It’s a marketer’s dream come true: take an increasingly anxious population, gently guide them to internalize a few worst-case scenarios, and then turn around to sell them a sense of security.
The moment on when BART formally enacted the sixth surveillance transparency ordinance in California, the ninth in the country and the first by a transit district. The Bay Area’s sixth surveillance transparency ordinance was voted in unanimously by…
At the same time the BART Board of Directors was creating a Sanctuary Transit policy, the mass transit system was sending 57,000 license plate scans from devices installed at the MacArthur BART station to the Department of Homeland Security’s…
Welcome to the Bay Area’s fifth local surveillance transparency ordinance in the City of Palo Alto, which approved their ordinance on an 8-1 City Council vote on the evening of September 20. The heart of Silicon Valley began this…
With Oakland Privacy catalyzing the turnout, members of the ACLU, the EFF, DSA, Oakland Privacy, APTP, East Bay For Everyone, AROC, and the public spoke at the Board meeting with essentially one voice against BART staff proposals for increased surveillance,…
On Thursday, BART police will propose a system-wide security dragnet for the Bay Area’s transit system. BART police are asking the board to approve the project in concept and authorize trials at Lake Merritt and Civic Center BART stations.…
Comment from CA Assembly Public Safety Chair Reginald Jones-Sawyer speaks about statewide surveillance transparency and its importance at a June 19 committee hearing in Sacramento. Click to listen to a 2 minute snippet.
by Christina Rosalita “Policy after Procurement” has been, until recently, the unofficial non policy of blatantly experimenting until there is dissent or surreptitiously monitoring and using excuses as needed to justify. This approach is not in keeping with the promise…