By Nicole Ozer, Technology & Civil Liberties Policy Director, ACLU of Northern California at 11:03am
On Tuesday, preschoolers in Richmond, California showed up for school and were handed jerseys embedded with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. RFID tags are tiny computer chips that are frequently used to track everything from cattle to commercial products moving through warehouses. Now the school district is apparently hoping to use these chips to replace manual attendance records, track the children’s movements at school and during field trips, and collect other data like whether the child has eaten or not.
By Nicole Ozer, Technology & Civil Liberties Policy Director, ACLU of Northern California at 1:13pm
While the ACLU of Northern California and Facebook both agree that location information is very sensitive, we disagree that Places gives users adequate control of how and when to share this information. (Next time I visit my hometown, I’d like to be able to hang out with some of the Facebook crew at the Nut House without being asked again and again and again if I want that shared with everyone nearby!).
By Nicole Ozer, Technology & Civil Liberties Policy Director, ACLU of Northern California at 10:20am
Following Facebook’s announcement today about its new location-based product, Places, here’s what the ACLU of Northern California has to say on the privacy front:
Facebook made some changes to its regular privacy practices to protect sensitive location-based information, such as limiting the default visibility of check-ins on your feed to “Friends Only.” But it has failed to build in some other important privacy safeguards.
By Nicole Ozer, Technology & Civil Liberties Policy Director, ACLU of Northern California at 2:12pm
On June 16, ten of the nation’s top privacy organizations sent a joint letter to Facebook (PDF) detailing outstanding privacy concerns. Facebook’s response glossed over many of the critical points raised about necessary next steps. The following reiterates our concerns and addresses Facebook’s response to our June 16 letter. We look forward to discussing these issues and Facebook’s plans in more detail to resolve these issues.
By Nicole Ozer, Technology & Civil Liberties Policy Director, ACLU of Northern California at 5:35pm
Wednesday, ten of the nation’s top privacy organizations, including the ACLU of Northern California, EFF, EPIC, and CDT, sent a joint letter to Facebook (PDF) calling for the social networking giant to fix remaining issues concerning user privacy and control.
Facebook recently took a step in the right direction and addressed some of its privacy issues. But Facebook users’ personal information is still visible through privacy cracks most people don’t even know about, including the "app gap." It’s time for Facebook to plug the app gap and give users real control over all of their information.
The privacy groups’ open letter (PDF) calls on Facebook to demonstrate its commitment to its own principles by addressing six outstanding areas of concern:
By Nicole Ozer, Technology & Civil Liberties Policy Director, ACLU of Northern California at 5:05pm
Yahoo is making another attempt to move into the social networking space this week with the launch of “Pulse.” It encourages users to share “Updates,” including comments on news items, pictures posted to Picasa, and other content shared on various Yahoo services with others — and makes it easy for anyone to track these updates. Here’s our quick take on Pulse’s plusses and minuses for privacy.
By Nicole Ozer, Technology & Civil Liberties Policy Director, ACLU of Northern California at 5:11pm
Facebook has been taking heat for its recent privacy-unfriendly practices, from the "privacy transition" that took away privacy controls to "instant personalization" that instantly shares personal information with third party pages without the user's consent. In response, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg published an op-ed in the Washington Post today, claiming that Facebook has "heard the feedback" and now realizes that "people want easier control over their information." But we don't just want simpler settings that limit our choices and force us to share information broadly or not at all—we want real control, and we want it to be the default.
By Nicole Ozer, Technology & Civil Liberties Policy Director, ACLU of Northern California at 11:35am
Today, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties is holding its first hearing to discuss the woefully outdated Electronic Communications Privacy Act. (Did we mention that it was written in 1986?!)
Today, Google and the authors and publishers who sued Google are hoping that United States District Court Judge Denny Chin will approve their settlement and allow Google to launch the world's largest digital library and bookstore combined.
On Tuesday, preschoolers in Richmond, California showed up for school and 
Yahoo is making another attempt to move into the social networking space this week with the launch of “