aclu

The Michigan State Police today fired back at claims that it has been using handheld machines called "extraction devices" to download personal information from motorists they pull over during routine traffic stops.

The Michigan branch of the American Civil Liberties Union last week said it was petitioning the MSP to release information regarding the use of portable devices that "can be used to secretly extract personal information from cell phones during routine stops." The devices can reportedly download text messages, photos, video, and GPS data from most brands of cell phones. In its statement, the ACLU … Read more

Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout based on comment from both the Michigan State Police and the ACLU of Michigan. See below for details.

The Michigan State Police have a handful of portable machines called "extraction devices" that have the potential to download personal information from motorists they pull over, and the ACLU would like to know more about them.

The devices, sold by a company called Cellebrite, can download text messages, photos, video, and even GPS data from most brands of cell phones. The handheld machines have various interfaces to work with different models … Read more

Good news: Google says so long to the "Search" button, Mozilla launching an online gaming directory, and a jailed journalist Twitters from his cell. Bad news: Snakebots climb trees! And Twitter has dedicated servers for, gulp, Justin Bieber. Special guest Darren Kitchen joins us.

The first question for many when Facebook finally unveiled its Places geolocation product on Wednesday didn't have to do with how quickly the social network's 500-million-plus users would catch on, but rather how privacy advocacy groups--who have had Facebook in their crosshairs for months now--would react to the announcement.

It appears to be progressing as expected: A handful of privacy groups are voicing concerns about how much data is collected, how many controls users need to wade through to disable features, and how much may be exposed to third parties. Facebook, in turn, says they're missing the … Read more

A request by the North Carolina Department of Revenue for personally identifiable Amazon.com customer data that could be linked to purchases is unconstitutional because it violates Internet users' rights to privacy and free speech, the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday.

The ACLU, on behalf of seven Amazon customers, has intervened in a lawsuit that Amazon filed in April over an information request from the North Carolina Department of Revenue (NCDOR) for all the purchase records of customers with a North Carolina shipping address since August 2003, as part of a tax audit.

Amazon has provided the agency with … Read more

Facebook's recent announcement that it had simplified and enhanced its privacy settings wasn't enough to satisfy the privacy activists that have become some of its sharpest critics.

In an open letter on Wednesday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the ACLU of Northern California, and the Center for Democracy and Technology urged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to make "instant personalization" opt-in by default and provide more privacy options including allowing users to "control every piece of information they can share via Facebook." Instant … Read more

The Northern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has put out a campaign designed to raise awareness of the privacy implications of Facebook's developer platform. It's focusing specifically on the popular "quiz" applications, like "Which Cocktail Best Suits Your Personality?" and "Which Wes Anderson Movie Character Are You?" These are largely one-time-use apps that many a Facebook user clicks on and tries out with little concern.

According to the ACLU chapter, "millions of people on Facebook who use third-party applications on the site, including the popular quizzes, do not … Read more

Facebook has hired an American Civil Liberties Union attorney to serve in the new role of director of public policy for the social network, according to The New York Times.

As a senior attorney at the ACLU, Timothy Sparapani worked on issues like data mining and national ID cards. He also has close ties to privacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Center for Digital Democracy.

Representatives from those groups have complained about Facebook's advertising practices and its revised terms of service agreement. (The CDD complained this week that revised terms … Read more

The Bush administration plans to fight a recent court decision that threatens to curb its powers to obtain logs of Americans' Internet activities without court approval.

As expected, the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday filed a notice that it plans to appeal a September federal court ruling that declared the surveillance tactic, known as a national security letter, to be unconstitutional. The government's filing was one paragraph long and came with no additional comment, according to the Associated Press.

The power to use national security letters has been around for a few decades, but it was effectively … Read more