A California legislative committee today voted to direct the State Auditor to launch a probe into the use of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) by law enforcement agencies. The audit will include the first comprehensive statewide survey of which agencies… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘Locational Privacy’
Five California Cities Are Trying to Kill an Important Location Privacy Bill
If you rely on shared biked or scooters, your location privacy is at risk. Cities across the United States are currently pushing companies that operate shared mobility services like Jump, Lime, and Bird to share individual trip data for any… Read More ›
If Regulators Won’t Stop The Sale of Cell Phone Users’ Location Data, Consumers Must
A Motherboard investigation revealed in January how any cellphone users’ real-time location could be obtained for $300. The pervasiveness of the practice, coupled with the extreme invasion of people’s privacy, is alarming. The reporting showed there is a vibrant market… Read More ›
Victory! Supreme Court Says Fourth Amendment Applies to Cell Phone Tracking
The Supreme Court handed down a landmark opinion today in Carpenter v. United States, ruling 5-4 that the Fourth Amendment protects cell phone location information. In an opinion by Chief Justice Roberts, the Court recognized that location information, collected by… Read More ›
Border Spy Tech Shouldn’t Be a Requirement for a Path to Citizenship
The Border Security and Immigration Reform Act (H.R. 6136), introduced before Congress last week, would offer immigrants a new path to citizenship in exchange for increased high tech government surveillance of citizens and immigrants alike. The bill calls for increased… Read More ›
Senator Wyden Demands Answers from Prison Phone Service Caught Sharing Cellphone Location Data
Do you use Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile? If so, your real-time cell phone location data may have been shared with law enforcement without your knowledge or consent. How could this happen? Well, a company that provides phone services to… Read More ›
The New Frontier of E-Carceration: Trading Physical for Virtual Prisons
Criminal justice advocates have been working hard to abolish cash bail schemes and dismantle the prison industrial complex. And one of the many tools touted as an alternative to incarceration is electronic monitoring or “EM”: a form of digital incarceration,… Read More ›
Keep Border Spy Tech Out of Dreamer Protection Bills
If Congress votes this month on legislation to protect Dreamers from deportation, any bill it considers should not include invasive surveillance technologies like biometric screening, social media snooping, automatic license plate readers, and drones. Such high tech spying would unduly… Read More ›
EFF Asks California Court to Reverse Ruling That Could Weaken Open Records Rules, Impede Public Access to Government Records
State agencies in California are collecting and using more data now than they ever, and much of this data includes very personal information about California residents. This presents a challenge for agencies and the courts—how to make government-held data that’s… Read More ›
When Trading Track Records Means Less Privacy
Sharing your personal fitness goals—lowered heart rates, accurate calorie counts, jogging times, and GPS paths—sounds like a fun, competitive feature offered by today’s digital fitness trackers, but a recent report from The Washington Post highlights how this same feature might… Read More ›