Blog of Rights

Chris
Conley

Chris Conley is the Technology and Civil Liberties Fellow at the ACLU of Northern California, where his work focuses on the intersection of privacy, free speech, and emerging technology. As a lawyer and technologist, he has worked extensively on the connection between consumer products and individual rights, particularly concerns about third party "apps" that have access to social network or mobile device data without adequate controls or transparency. He has presented on technology and civil liberties issues before the Federal Trade Commission and at various conferences including SXSW Interactive and DEF CON, and has developed his own Facebook and mobile apps giving users greater transparency into the types and amount of personal data these apps can access.

 

Prior to joining the ACLU of Northern California, Chris was a Fellow with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, where his research explored international Internet surveillance. He has previously worked as a software engineer and data architect for various corporations and non-profits. Chris holds a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from The University of Michigan, a S.M. in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

California Social Media Privacy Laws Give Students, Employees Online Rights

By Chris Conley, Technology and Civil Liberties Fellow, ACLU of Northern California at 11:15am

On Thursday California Governor Jerry Brown signed two bills into law that will protect the privacy of employee and college student social media accounts in the state of California. While these bills aren’t perfect, they are an important first step towards recognizing that our rights—including our fundamental right to privacy—apply just as much in the online world as in the offline.

Facebook Addresses Several Privacy Problems

By Chris Conley, Technology and Civil Liberties Fellow, ACLU of Northern California at 2:25pm

Facebook has come under withering fire recently for its recent string of privacy-unfriendly practices, from its “privacy transition” that took away privacy controls to “instant personalization” that instantly shares personal information with third party pages without the user's consent.

You've Been Tagged on Facebook—But Now You’re In Control

By Chris Conley, Technology and Civil Liberties Fellow, ACLU of Northern California at 6:27pm

This morning, Facebook announced its latest set of changes to its privacy controls that will start rolling out on August 25. The upcoming changes are intended to make it easier for you to understand and choose who can see both content you post yourself and tags created by other users. Allowing you to pre-approve tags and giving you better tools to manage your own profile is a positive step, and we encourage Facebook to turn settings like these on by default and to continue to develop and improve features and tools that give you control over your own personal information.

D.C. Judge: Government Doesn't Need a Warrant to Demand Cell Phone Location Information

By Chris Conley, Technology and Civil Liberties Fellow, ACLU of Northern California at 10:39am

Can the government demand location information records from your carrier without a warrant? Unfortunately, a D.C. District Court judge thinks so.

The Facebook/FTC Settlement Proposal: What's New, What's Not

By Chris Conley, Technology and Civil Liberties Fellow, ACLU of Northern California at 3:14pm

Earlier this week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a proposed settlement with Facebook, addressing its assertion that Facebook deceived users by failing to uphold its privacy promises. As we said elsewhere, the proposed settlement has one major step forward: it prohibits the company from “begging forgiveness instead of asking permission” by changing its privacy settings to make data more public or share it with more people. But it doesn’t cure all of the outstanding issues with Facebook privacy.

Facebook Is Abiding By Its Own Rules, Great! Now How About Good Rules For Everybody?

By Chris Conley, Technology and Civil Liberties Fellow, ACLU of Northern California at 3:16pm

Today, Facebook agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges that it deceived customers by failing to uphold privacy promises. The FTC announced today that the social networking site “deceived consumers by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public. The proposed settlement requires Facebook to take several steps to make sure it lives up to its promises in the future, including giving consumers clear and prominent notice and obtaining consumers' express consent before their information is shared beyond the privacy settings they have established.”

The Social Network is Stalking You

By Chris Conley, Technology and Civil Liberties Fellow, ACLU of Northern California at 6:33pm

Facebook has been stalking you around the Internet – even when you’re not logged in.

Google Turns on Encrypted Search by Default for Users

By Chris Conley, Technology and Civil Liberties Fellow, ACLU of Northern California at 5:57pm

This week, our federal online privacy law turns 25. The ACLU is hosting a blog series that will address some of the many reasons why the "Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986" (ECPA) is in need of an upgrade! Spread the word using #UpdateECPA, and to learn more about your dotRights, visit www.aclu.org/ecpa.

Today, Google announced that they will be making encrypted search the default for users who are logged into a Google account. This means that third parties, including both your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and the sites you ultimately visit (unless you click on an ad) will not be able to see exactly what you searched for. We're happy to see Google expanding access to secure search. We hope that it will continue to expand protections like this to all searches and hope other search engines will also do the same.

Quiz: What Do Facebook Quizzes Know About You?

By Chris Conley, Technology and Civil Liberties Fellow, ACLU of Northern California at 4:29pm

(Originally posted on the ACLU of Northern California's Bytes & Pieces blog.)

Ever whiled away five minutes on a Facebook quiz, finding out what cartoon character is your look-alike or how your IQ stacks up? These quizzes may seem like a perfectly harmless way to spend a few spare minutes. But have you stopped to think about what these quizzes are learning about you and how that info could be used? Take our quiz and learn more!

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