By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 5:18pm
Privacy researcher Chris Soghoian gave a very nice talk at TEDx recently on “Why Google Won’t Protect You From Big Brother.” He provides a cogent overview and some useful perspective on the relationship between companies and the government, which is something we at the ACLU have been concerned about since our 2004 report on the Surveillance Industrial Complex, and before.
The ACLU and dozens of other organizations – including Free Press and the Electronic Frontier Foundation – have teamed up to create the Declaration of Internet Freedom, which sets for a set of principles providing a positive vision to preserve the Internet as a platform for speech, innovation and creativity.
By Aden Fine, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 2:07pm
A New York criminal court judge has issued a decision denying Twitter’s motion to quash a court order requiring it to produce information about one of its users pursuant to a subpoena that the District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan issued in connection with the prosecution of an Occupy Wall Street protester.
The big news in the business world this week is Facebook’s ongoing Initial Public Offering, where the company is selling shares to the public based on an estimated value of around one hundred billion dollars. [Or, as Dr. Evil would say: one hundred billion dollars.]
By Aden Fine, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 12:59pm
Twitter has filed a motion in state court in New York seeking to quash a court order requiring it to turn over information about one of its users and his communications on Twitter. This particular case involves a Twitter user, Malcolm Harris, who is being prosecuted by the District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan for disorderly conduct in connection with the Occupy Wall Street protest that occurred on the Brooklyn Bridge last year.
By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 3:54pm
The Associated Press wrote a story a couple of weeks ago about job applicants being compelled to turn over the passwords to their social-networking accounts. This is an issue that the ACLU has worked on in a number of states, and it has stirred a lot of interest. Now, we’ve posted a guide to the issue on our web site.
Which Internet company is in court protecting one of its user's right to free speech?
Which state voted to ban marriage for same-sex couples?
Which politician endorsed the freedom to marry for same-sex couples this week?
Which judicial body did ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero describe as a system is "set up to guarantee convictions and hand down death sentences, nothing more?"
What bill would be a good start to prohibiting employers from asking for employees' or job applicants' social networking passwords?
By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 4:42pm
CNET’s Declan McCullaugh reported Friday that the CALEA II proposal is alive and well within the Justice Department. This is a proposal to radically expand the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, a law passed in the 1990s that requires the phone companies to affirmatively design their systems so that law enforcement can eavesdrop on them. The new proposal would expand that requirement from the telephone system to computer programs such as those that run social-networking sites, VoIP, instant messaging, and webmail.
