Nathan Strout reports: NOAA Fisheries wants to create a new national database to collect private and public information – including vehicle registrations, phone records, social media accounts, and more – to help its law-enforcement division conduct investigations. The agency issued a notice in late June seeking contractors capable of building the new system. Companies currently…
Watch: Government Spyware on Your Phone? Unfortunately, There’s an App for That
Washington, DC (July 9, 2023) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance is challenging the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) in federal court for coordinating with Google to automatically install spyware on the smartphones of more than one million Commonwealth residents, without their knowledge or consent, in a misguided effort to combat Covid-19. A newly-released video details how…
Sacramento Sheriff is sharing license plate reader data with anti-abortion states, records show
Andrew Sheeler reports: In 2015, Democratic Elk Grove Assemblyman Jim Cooper voted for Senate Bill 34, which restricted law enforcement from sharing automated license plate reader (ALPR) data with out-of-state authorities. In 2023, now-Sacramento County Sheriff Cooper appears to be doing just that. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) a digital rights group, has sent Cooper…
Law Against Secretly Recording Public Conversations Is Unconstitutional, Ninth Circuit Rules
Avalon Zoppo reports: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Monday struck down as unconstitutional an Oregon wiretapping law that bars secretly taping in-person conversations in public spaces, with a dissenting judge citing the rise of generative artificial intelligence “deepfakes” in support of a person’s right to have notice before being recorded….