License Plate Readers

Wine Country ALPRS

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Yet another city is contemplating a dive into mass surveillance via automated license plate readers. St. Helena, CA, mostly known for wineries and upscale restaurants, is considering adding the devices to the town’s streets.

As usual, the item has been placed on the City Council consent calendar in order to minimize conversation and community input. Here’s our letter asking them to take it off the consent calendar (and other things).

Local press coverage: Napa Valley Register: St Helena City Council Wants Public Input Before License Plate Readers

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Uncategorized

A Drone in the Backyard

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Neighbors of Highland Hospital, Alameda County’s primary public hospital, were disturbed by a drone hovering about their homes at low altitude (so low that one neighbor said she could feel the vibrations from the drone underneath her feet) gathering footage from their yards and the curtilage of their home. Including themselves if they happened to be gardening or hanging out in their yards.

The drone originally showed up in April and then returned on July 1st. The drone operator told homeowner Mara Velez after she complained, that the images were being collected for a marketing video commissioned by the hospital. Velez emailed the hospital and during the drone’s second appearance, a hospital employee accompanied the drone operator and, anticipating Velez’ unhappiness with the low-flying and invasive drone, told her the health system’s attorneys had informed them they weren’t “doing anything wrong”.

But they were.

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Uncategorized

San Diego Passes Regulatory Ordinance … With A Hole

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To conclude a 2+ year process initiated by the SD Trust Coalition, the City of San Diego adopted (first reading) a surveillance transparency ordinance, but not before amending it to exclude from oversight the activities of the 19 different law enforcement task forces that the San Diego Police Department participates in.

San Diego’s police chief pressed for the amendment and claimed the SDPD would have “no choice” but to withdraw from multiple task forces due to non-disclosure agreements that he said prohibit providing any information about what the task forces are doing to an oversight body.

The amendment passed the Council narrowly, on a 5-4 vote, but attempts to get the amendment withdrawn before adoption failed. So amended, the transparency ordinance passed in a unanimous vote.

The San Diego Police Department is a heavy participant in multi-agency task forces, including some that likely focus on border security issues, so their exclusion from oversight is a big deal. The ordinance will govern unilateral use of equipment by the San Diego Police Department when it goes into effect.

Transparency Ordinance

Statement from Oakland Privacy on The Proposed L.A. Police Commission Surveillance Board/Advisory Body

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Statement from Oakland Privacy (https://oaklandprivacy.org) on Proposed Los Angeles Police Commission Surveillance Board/Advisory Body

We release this statement as the citizens advocacy group that promoted and helped to implement what has become known as the “Oakland model” of surveillance activism and regulation. The body in Oakland that eventually became the Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission was generated in and endorsed by the community and local activists. It came into being with local activist support and its existence stems directly from their work.

Whatever the proposal from Secure Justice and others is, or is not, it is absolutely not the “Oakland model” if it is overriding the local activist community. We believe it is up to the Los Angeles community how they want to engage with their police department and regulatory bodies about surveillance tools in their city and how, and if, they are used. It can not and will not work in any other way.

The proposal should be taken off the table due to significant community opposition.

Data Privacy

Join Our Call for Chrome Privacy Now! 

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Oakland Privacy, the Bay Area’s anti-surveillance coalition, has put up a new website at ChromePrivacy.org to call on Google to add a global opt-out signal to the world’s most used web browser, Chrome.

Years into California’s effort to give people control over their online data via CCPA (2018) and CPRA (2020), Google has continued to dodge a global opt-out for Chrome.

Instead, the company, via its Privacy Sandbox, experiments with elaborate schemes for “greener” tracking and profiling functions.

It’s time for Google to let us decide for ourselves. Less choice is not better, and privacy is not a dark pattern. 

Join our call for Chrome Privacy Now and take action in three simple ways:

1. Sign the open letter to Google demanding a global opt-out signal in the world’s most-used web browser
2. Place a testimonial with your avatar on the Chrome Privacy website 
3. Spread the word on social media

Shotspotter Gunshot Detection

National Campaign To End Shotspotter

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Privacy and criminal justice activists across the country are focusing on gun detection software, and specifically lead vendor, Shotspotter, after the company’s forensic reports threw two innocent men in jail and drew cops into a fatal encounter with 13 year old Adam Toledo in Chicago.

The outdoor microphones, which are predominately deployed in lower income Black and Brown communities, routinely create dangerous situations by sending police alarms of gunfire that never took place. Independent research documents that around 90% of Shotspotter alerts end up with no evidence of gunfire ever having occurred.

Shotspotter has bought a predictive policing company (Hunchlab), promoted their technology’s potential as a drone activation system, and recently announced a partnership with Airobotics, a drone company based in Israel.

We need real solutions to gun violence, not routinely malfunctioning tech that is wildly expensive and drains public dollars.

Sign the open letter to the company.