Oakland Privacy

Cell Site Simulators, Facial Recognition, Public Records

Public Records Suit Against the Long Beach Police Department

by Tracy Rosenberg • March 8, 2021 • 0 Comments

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 for failing to disclose records on their use of cell site simulators and facial recognition technology.

The lawsuit is one of series launched by the Aaron Swartz Day Police Surveillance Project to demand that municipal police departments respond to public records requests. Previous suits against the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department and the Fresno Sheriff’s Department resulted in the release of disclosable records about surveillance technology in use.

You can read the complaint against the Long Beach Police Department below

A Virtual Wall is Trump’s Wall by Another Name

by Tracy Rosenberg • February 25, 2021 • 0 Comments

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 taking more remote and deathly routes to avoid detection, and the use of the border for “testing” highly invasive military grade surveillance.

Across The Finish Line in Santa Clara County

by Tracy Rosenberg • January 27, 2021 • 0 Comments

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 County Board of Supervisors approved the first complete set of annual surveillance reports on every technology in use across the county and from all county departments, setting a new record for municipal transparency on the use of spytech.

Congratulations and a big thank you to Santa Clara County and its supervisors for being the first ones to recognize the importance of this law and to take the leap.

Uncategorized

Refocusing License Plate Readers

by Tracy Rosenberg • January 14, 2021 • 0 Comments

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 driver in California in a mass surveillance exercise. The bill is sponsored by Media Alliance, Oakland Privacy and EFF.

Senate Bill 210 from Senator Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) would require operators of license plate reader systems to quickly purge any scans that do not match hot lists of vehicles of interest.

This defines the program as one of finding the location of vehicles of interest, not surveilling every driver in the State. SB 210 also requires annual audits to ensure compliance.

Oakland Privacy’s Year in Bullet Points – 2020

by JP Massar • December 19, 2020 • 0 Comments

Some of the things Oakland Privacy had a hand in in 2020:

Deeply involved in the successful effort to get Santa Cruz to pass a facial recognition and predictive policing ban.
Initiated and concluded a successful lawsuit against Vallejo re: Stingray approval and use by Council.
Filed a lawsuit against Oakland for egregiously violating the Public Records Act.
Lobbied for and saw AB 1185, Sheriff Oversight, passed and signed into law.
Pushed for and got the AC Transit Board to approve a policy on its surveillance cameras for its rapid-transit platforms.
Participated in an opposition campaign to the faux commercial privacy ballot initiative, Prop 24. (it passed nonetheless).
Advised activists in Portland, Oregon on their campaign which ultimately resulted in passing a ban on both government AND commercial use of facial recognition, a first.
Helped defeat a proposal for massive use of surveillance cameras across Berkeley.
Produced a report on Ring camera usage via the ‘Neighbors App’ in San Francisco.
Pushed for and succeeded in cutting/eliminating the ‘Preventing Violent Extremism’ program in California
Helped initiate successful public records lawsuits against the Sacramento and Fresno county sheriffs
Obtained and distributed much information via public records requests, including on law enforcement helicopters, cell site simulator logs and ALPR deployment locations.

Check out our doings for 2019.

OP-2019-accomplishments-flyer Download

OP-2020-accomplishments-flyer Download

Drones, Predictive Policing

Oakland City Council Approves Drone Use and Bans Predictive Policing and Biometric Surveillance

by Tracy Rosenberg • December 16, 2020 • 3 Comments

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 Alameda County Sheriff. The approval of the use policy means that use would no longer trigger an individual exigent use report each time it happens, but would just be reported on annually. The City Council also mandated that the city’s general fund not be used to purchase drones, so it is expected that the city will pursue drone purchases with an upcoming COPS or UASI grant funding cycle.

The Council also also approved revisions to the surveillance transparency ordinance approved in 2018 that would expand the existing facial recognition ban to include allied forms of biometric surveillance and make official that the use of predictive policing software like Predpol would not be used in Oakland. The city had already declared that it would not use Predpol and similar predictive programs in 2015.