Oakland Privacy

Facial Recognition, Transparency Ordinance

‘Stop Secret Surveillance’ Ordinance Introduced in San Francisco

by Tracy Rosenberg • January 29, 2019 • 0 Comments

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 SF voters.

SF’s ordinance, which must sit for 30 days before a board policy committee can take it up, includes a total ban on the municipal use of facial recognition technology. If passed, it is believed it would be the first such ban in the nation.

Press coverage from The Verge, Metro UK, NBC, SF Examiner, Gizmodo, Mercury News, Ars Technica, SF Weekly, Wired, Slate, Atlantic

Public Records, Transparency Ordinance

Surveillance and Secrets

by Tracy Rosenberg • January 25, 2019 • 0 Comments

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 happened.

Oakland Formalizes No Cooperation With ICE

by Tracy Rosenberg • January 22, 2019 • 0 Comments

On January 22, 2019, the Oakland City Council passed on second reading an ordinance that ends any and all municipal cooperation with ICE, including traffic assistance.

The ordinance, which makes permanent the policy of total non-cooperation, stems from the citywide protest after a West Oakland ICE raid in August of 2017 followed the end of the formal OPD-ICE Memorandum of Agreement.

After a lengthy investigation by Oakland’s Privacy Advisory Commission revealed that the raid on a Guatemalan family had nothing to do with human trafficking, the City Council embraced the new total non-cooperation policy and moved to formalize it as a municipal ordinance.

Police Militarization, UASI

Urban Shield Reconstitution Plan Goes to Board of Supervisors.

by JP Massar • January 17, 2019 • 0 Comments

Six years of protest, public comment and politicking have finally created a light at the end of the Stop Urban Shield tunnel.

On January 14th, 2019, after five months of hearings, leg work and votes, the Alameda County Urban Shield Task Force finished its assigned task. The Task Force was voted into being by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors back in March of 2018 when the Board voted to “end Urban Shield as it is currently constituted.” It began work in September, 2018 and at its last meeting approved a set of recommendations to be presented to the Supervisors that would radically transform Urban Shield from a militarized SWAT Team and weapons extravaganza into a true emergency preparedness conclave and suite of field exercises relevant to the Bay Area.

Tell the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to fully support the recommendations of the Ad-Hoc Committee.

Take Action

Civil Rights Groups Pressure Tech Companies Not To Sell Face Surveillance To Cops

by Tracy Rosenberg • January 15, 2019 • 0 Comments

A coalition of more than 80 racial justice, faith, and civil, human, and immigrants’ rights groups, including Oakland Privacy, today sent letters to Microsoft, Amazon, and Google demanding the companies commit not to sell face surveillance technology to the government.

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Uncategorized

RIP East Bay Express

by Tracy Rosenberg • January 13, 2019 • 0 Comments

January 11 brought the sad news that East Bay alternative weekly the East Bay Express, which had been under financial duress for a while, would be laying off its entire editorial staff and greatly reducing operations. The newspaper’s demise as a staffed publication was immediately caused by a lawsuit by the paper’s former sales manager which awarded back overtime pay and legal fees totaling $750,000 or more.

The loss of the local investigative reporting done by the East Bay Express, which almost always led and spurred later coverage by the region’s dailies, is incalculable. In Oakland itself, where the paper’s reporting was the accountability agent for Oakland municipal government for the past decade, and throughout the East Bay.

Oakland Privacy benefitted enormously from the Express’ tough reporting and as a colleague of mine put it; “It’s safe to say that without the Express, Oakland would have a Domain Awareness Center”. And it wouldn’t have a privacy commission, OPD would still be cooperating with ICE, and BART would not have a transparency ordinance. Among many other things.

We can’t thank you enough, Express, specifically former reporters Ali Winston and Darwin BondGraham. It’s a sad day for Oakland and for journalism.