Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram provided access to data for Geofeedia, which then gave law enforcement the location data in order to monitor protesters in Oakland and Baltimore, according to a blog post published by the American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday.
Many states are beginning to introduce legislation to ensure transparency between the public and police forces, as well as to make sure privacy rights are protected.
North Carolina legislators seek to limit the public’s access to police video recordings. A law effective Oct. 1 excludes police body and dashboard cameras from the public record. The law allows only people involved in the case to review it–at police discretion. For those not involved in the case, including media, protesters, and activist groups, viewing the footage will require a court order.
A text messaging service called HelloVote launched Thursday to allow people to register to vote in minutes by texting or using Facebook Messenger.
Members of Congress are working to pass the Kelsey Smith Act, which would give law enforcement access to phone location data in some emergency situations, despite claims from privacy groups that the law could be abused.
The Office of the Public Defender this week requested that the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) halt its recently disclosed aerial surveillance program immediately and until the public is briefed and defense attorneys are given access to the footage. The previously secret aerial surveillance program was revealed to the public last week. The program uses technology […]
Jane Holl Lute, the former deputy secretary of Homeland Security, is scheduled to provide a Tech Talk at the Symantec Government Symposium on Aug. 30 in Washington, D.C. MeriTalk caught up with Lute, who agreed to offer her thoughts on the evolving struggle between privacy and security, and a preview of her presentation.
A social media site that aims to embrace privacy asks for either a phone number, credit card information, the last four digits of the user’s Social Security number, or a postal address when signing up for an account. The website, Nextdoor, claims the information is used to ensure the people are who they say they are and that they live at the address that they provided.
A RAND Corporation report casts doubts on whether the Chicago Police Department’s algorithm-based, predictive policing program, which generates a Strategic Subjects List of people that the system believes are most likely to kill or be killed, is actually helping police quell violence in the city.
The Massachusetts Turnpike is one of the latest roads to begin to feature all-automated toll collection systems, which cause privacy concerns due to the resulting databases of license plate photographs.
