On December 17th, 2015, as an outgrowth of the successful campaign against the Domain Awareness Center in Oakland, and with much prompting from Oakland Privacy, the Oakland City Council passed legislation creating the first municipal Privacy Commission in the United States. This is the ordinance text.
It is tasked with overseeing the implementation of Oakland’s Surveillance Equipment Ordinance (SERO), reviewing use policies and yearly reports required by the ordinance for Oakland’s surveillance technologies, reviewing Memorandums of Understanding that involve surveillance (such as the one between Oakland and the Federal Joint Terrorism Task Force), and making other such recommendations as are fitting to the Oakland City Council.
Unfortunately, despite our advocacy, no other jurisdictions have as yet created the equivalent of Oakland’s Privacy Advisory Commission, leaving oversight and policy recommendations to Police Review boards and/or legislative bodies directly. While we would welcome such bodies, we are not currently as intensely lobbying for them as we once were.
An example of an op-ed, ‘Oakland Poised to Lead in Protecting Privacy,’ written for a local newspaper to increase public awareness of the need for a privacy commission and privacy policy in the City of Oakland. (Feb 4, 2015)
Another example of an op-ed written for a local newspaper to increase public awareness of the need for a privacy commission and privacy policy in the City of Oakland: ‘Changing Oakland’s Reputation With a Privacy Policy.’