An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Amazon on Wednesday said it was implementing a one-year moratorium on police use of its facial recognition software, reversing its long-time support of selling the technology to law enforcement. Civil liberties activists have voiced concern that facial recognition could lead to unjust arrests during demonstrations against police brutality, racial injustice and the death…
Tag: civil liberties
ACLU Sues LA Over Controversial Scooter Tracking System
The American Civil Liberties Union sued Los Angeles Monday over the city’s requirement that electric scooter rental companies provide anonymized real-time location data. The Verge reports: The lawsuit centers on the Los Angeles Department of Transportation’s use of a digital tool called the Mobility Data Specification program (MDS), which the agency created as a way to track and regulate electric scooters…
What Would The Internet Look Like If America Repeals Section 230?
“REVOKE 230!” President Trump tweeted Friday, and NPR reports that the movement to revoke its safeguards “is increasingly becoming a bipartisan consensus… But experts caution that eliminating the legal protections may have unintended consequences for Internet users that extend far beyond Facebook and Twitter.” “We don’t think about things like Wikipedia, the Internet Archive and all these other public goods that…
ACLU Accuses Clearview AI of Privacy ‘Nightmare Scenario’
The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday sued the facial recognition start-up Clearview AI (alternative source), which claims to have helped hundreds of law enforcement agencies use online photos to solve crimes, accusing the company of “unlawful, privacy-destroying surveillance activities.” The New York Times reports: In a suit filed in Illinois, the A.C.L.U. said that Clearview violated a state law that…
Tech Companies Urges US House to Protect the Privacy of Americans’ Browsing and Search History
While reinstating the PATRIOT Act, the U.S. Senate blocked an amendment which would’ve shielded Americans’ browsing and search histories from warrantless searches. But that fight may not be over, reports TechSpot: [S]everal tech companies including Mozilla, Reddit, Twitter, and Patreon have co-signed a letter asking the House of Representatives to tidy up this mess. The House still needs to pass the…
The ACLU Wants To Know Why Facebook Beat a 2018 Wiretap Case
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Facebook in 2018 beat back federal prosecutors seeking to wiretap its encrypted Messenger app. Now the American Civil Liberties Union is seeking to find out how. The entire proceeding was confidential, with only the result leaking to the press. Lawyers for the ACLU and the Washington Post on Tuesday asked a San Francisco-based…
Snowden Warns Governments Are Using Coronavirus To Build ‘The Architecture of Oppression’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Vice: Snowden is the first guest in the new ‘Shelter in Place’ series debuting on VICE TV on Thursday at 10 p.m. EST, which looks at the global response to COVID-19 and its lasting impact around the world. VICE co-founder Shane Smith will discuss these themes, as well as how to survive quarantine, with…
Court Finds Algorithm Bias Studies Don’t Violate US Anti-Hacking Law
“A federal court in D.C. has ruled in a lawsuit against Attorney General William Barr that studies aimed at detecting discrimination in online algorithms don’t violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,” reports Engadget:
The government argued that the Act made it illegal to violate a site’s terms of service through some investigative methods (such as submitting false info for research), but…
What Happens When Tech Companies Offer to Fight Coronavirus With Digital Surveillance?
“White House officials are asking tech companies for more insight into our social networks and travel patterns,” reports Wired, noting that Facebook even “created a disease mapping tool that tracks the spread of disease by aggregating user travel patterns.”
And Clearview AI “says it is in talks with public officials to use its software to identify anyone in contact with people who…
ACLU Sues To End ICE’s Rigged Algorithms That Keep Immigrants In Jail
A new lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union and Bronx Defenders alleges that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses a rigged algorithm to detain virtually everyone ICE’s New York Field Office brings in, even when the government itself believes they present a minimal threat to public safety. The Intercept reports: The suit, which asks that ICE’s “Risk Classification…