In addition to being creepy and dangerous surveillance dragnets, license plate readers don't even work.

Jake Snow@snowjake.bsky.social · 5d ago

Automated License Plate Readers: Dangerous when they're right and dangerous when they're wrong. www.businessinsider.com/flock-camera...

Automated License Plate Readers: Dangerous when they're right and dangerous when they're wrong. www.businessinsider.com/flock-camera...

Flock misread license plates in 71% of the alerts it sent to police in one California town

Flock sent 1,427 alerts to Roseville police over two years, flagging cars as stolen or used in a felony. In 71% of them, Flock read the plates wrong.

businessinsider.com

COME WORK at the ACLU! @aclu-norcal.bsky.social is hiring attorneys to work on tech and civil rights (my team) and the criminal legal/immigration system. These folks will work at the cutting edge of legal and policy efforts in California and beyond. Apply here: www.aclunorcal.org/jobs/staff-a...

Staff Attorney / Senior Staff Attorney - ACLU of Northern California

Develop and carry out litigation and policy advocacy to advance to protect and defend civil rights and civil liberties for all Californians.

aclunorcal.org

Very excited to share this with the world. We have been working on it for a while! www.wired.com/story/the-ac...

The ACLU Is Arming Lawyers to Expose State Surveillance Secrets

A new toolkit for attorneys in Massachusetts targets the technologies police use—and conceal—to build criminal cases, from facial recognition to AI-written police reports.

wired.com

Privacy laws keep applying with particular force to the tech that tracks everything people do on the Internet, combines it into detailed profiles, tries to use those profiles to manipulate them, and sells their information to a violent and repressive government. WEIRD. www.mlex.com/mlex/data-pr...

The Supreme Court is on the verge of a major TPS ruling. New documents show the government lied in official documents in terminating TPS for 350,000 Haitians. “Courts must rule on the law and facts. Here the facts indicate something very different from what this administration has publicly stated.”

Internal Emails Raise Questions About D.H.S. Ending Haiti Protections

nytimes.com

One more thing, and it's important. If you are in California and you hear from a platform (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Google, Reddit, X) saying that the government has demanded information about you, you can reach out to the ACLU's intake line. www.aclunorcal.org/get-help/

Need Legal Help? - ACLU of Northern California

Learn about your legal rights and get help with a legal matter.

aclunorcal.org

Jake Snow@snowjake.bsky.social · 3mo ago

This is the fourth case @aclu-norcal.bsky.social has filed to stop efforts by DHS to target people they disagree with from speaking out online. Proud to contribute to these cases in collaboration with many colleagues from ACLU affiliates around the country.

This is the fourth case @aclu-norcal.bsky.social has filed to stop efforts by DHS to target people they disagree with from speaking out online. Proud to contribute to these cases in collaboration with many colleagues from ACLU affiliates around the country.

ACLU of Northern California@aclu-norcal.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Today, we sued the federal government to stop Google from handing over personal information on a Canadian citizen who criticized Trump online. Under Trump 2.0, social media platforms have received hundreds of similar demands designed to chill speech the government doesn’t like.

One point I made during the hearing was that privacy notices can't avoid making judgments about what is safe for people to do with their personal information. A very quick 🧵.

Jake Snow@snowjake.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I spoke at a @calprivacy.bsky.social board meeting yesterday about sharing and sale of location information to the federal government. Spoiler alert: it's bad and dangerous and CA should do something. Details and eventually a webcast link are here: cppa.ca.gov/meetings/mat...

I spoke at a @calprivacy.bsky.social board meeting yesterday about sharing and sale of location information to the federal government. Spoiler alert: it's bad and dangerous and CA should do something. Details and eventually a webcast link are here: cppa.ca.gov/meetings/mat...

California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA)

cppa.ca.gov

Meta's plans to install facial recognition in their “smart” glasses would destroy our chance at privacy and anonymity in public. We could all be identified without our consent. Send a message to Meta demanding they make eyewear, not spywear.

Tell Meta: Eyewear, Not Spywear

Meta intends to add facial recognition technology to their glasses so anyone wearing the product can immediately and invisibly identify strangers. Tell Meta: Your glasses shouldn’t know our names. Demand privacy protections today.

aclu.org

Powerful questions from @eff.org client Amandla Thomas-Johnson, re Google sharing of his information with ICE: "Am I now a marked individual? Can I travel safely to see family in the Caribbean? Who, exactly, can I hold accountable?" www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

Google Broke Its Promise to Me. Now ICE Has My Data.

In 2025, Google gave Amandla Thomas-Johnson's data to ICE without giving him the chance to challenge the subpoena, breaking a nearly decade-long promise to notify users before handing their data to la...

eff.org

The Lochnerization of humanity's immortal soul has begun.

Karl Bode@karlbode.com · 4mo ago

what kind of question is that to even ask in a headline

We woke up early to hear our colleague Cecillia Wang defend birthright citizenship at the Supreme Court. ACLU NorCal’s Executive Director Abdi Soltani—a birthright citizen himself—reflects on today’s arguments and the Bay Area roots of a key chapter in the history of birthright citizenship.

🚨BREAKING NEWS🚨 Nicole Ozer, @nicoleozer.bsky.social, has been appointed as executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation effective June 1! Who is EFF's new ED? 🧵 (1/5)

Periodic reminder that the First Amendment isn’t magic. It requires broadcasters to defend their rights. If they don’t, if they capitulate for whatever reason - money, convenience, fear - the far that this is a flagrant First Amendment violation won’t matter.

Catherine Rampell@crampell.bsky.social · 5mo ago

FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatens broadcast licenses over Iran War coverage

NEW: We filed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to ban police from using geofence warrants, which forces tech companies to hand over location data for everyone in a certain area during a certain time. These invasive searches ensnare innocent people and violate our Fourth Amendment rights.

It's important that lawmakers are demanding answers here. Every user of social media (including our clients in the cases we've filed) deserves to know whether companies are stepping up to protect them or selling them out to a repressive government.

ACLU of Northern California@aclu-norcal.bsky.social · 5mo ago

“With these subpoenas, the government is intimidating anonymous social media users who are documenting ICE in their communities. Companies are capitulating to demands instead of fighting illegal subpoenas in court,” said ACLU attorney @snowjake.bsky.social.

“With these subpoenas, the government is intimidating anonymous social media users who are documenting ICE in their communities. Companies are capitulating to demands instead of fighting illegal subpoenas in court,” said ACLU attorney @snowjake.bsky.social.

Lawmakers Ask Tech Companies What User Data They Provided to D.H.S.

nytimes.com

The ACLU (including my team) has filed multiple actions to block subpoenas sent by DHS to identify people speaking out against its abuses. Today's NYT story shows that those cases are the tip of the iceberg: DHS has sent HUNDREDS of subpoenas to tech companies. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...

Homeland Security Wants Social Media Sites to Expose Anti-ICE Accounts

nytimes.com

The Department of Homeland Security is abusing administrative subpoenas to terrorize people and stop them from speaking out. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

Homeland Security is targeting Americans with this secretive legal weapon

Under Trump, the Department of Homeland Security has weaponized administrative subpoenas to attack free speech, according to privacy and civil rights groups.

washingtonpost.com

WOW @nicoleozer.bsky.social, a brilliant privacy scholar and leader (and my former boss), has been appointed to the board of @calprivacy.bsky.social. This is ✨amazing news✨ for Californians' privacy. cppa.ca.gov/announcement...

California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA)

cppa.ca.gov

Subscribe to my new ~biweekly newsletter, Tech Shadow Work, where I will write about the unspoken "shadow" behind tech policy discourse: rebeccawilliams.info/welcome-to-t...

Welcome to Tech Shadow Work

Tech Shadow Work launches in 2026 as a biweekly newsletter. Each issue uses a recent moment in technology or tech policy to examine its shadow, asking what these decisions reveal about societal power ...

rebeccawilliams.info

It’s been quite a year. Here’s a look back at some of the work we’re most proud of in 2025.

When you must accept surveillance as a condition of receiving a service (including housing): “It’s not convenience; it’s coercion.”

Jake Snow@snowjake.bsky.social · 8mo ago

BREAKING: @aclu-norcal.bsky.social, Lieff Cabraser, and Tobener Ravenscroft just sued San Francisco landlords over AI-powered surveillance in people's homes. Our homes are the last refuge of privacy. What happens there is none of your landlord's business. www.aclunc.org/news/aclu-su...

BREAKING: @aclu-norcal.bsky.social, Lieff Cabraser, and Tobener Ravenscroft just sued San Francisco landlords over AI-powered surveillance in people's homes. Our homes are the last refuge of privacy. What happens there is none of your landlord's business. www.aclunc.org/news/aclu-su...

ACLU Sues San Francisco Landlords over AI-Powered Surveillance in Tenants' Homes | ACLU of Northern CA

aclunc.org

ACLU of Northern California@aclu-norcal.bsky.social · 8mo ago

What people do in their homes is no one’s business but their own. But in many SF apartment buildings, landlords have forced tenants to accept so-called “smart home” systems that monitor their comings and goings and other behavior.

BREAKING: @aclu-norcal.bsky.social, Lieff Cabraser, and Tobener Ravenscroft just sued San Francisco landlords over AI-powered surveillance in people's homes. Our homes are the last refuge of privacy. What happens there is none of your landlord's business. www.aclunc.org/news/aclu-su...

ACLU Sues San Francisco Landlords over AI-Powered Surveillance in Tenants' Homes | ACLU of Northern CA

aclunc.org

ACLU of Northern California@aclu-norcal.bsky.social · 8mo ago

What people do in their homes is no one’s business but their own. But in many SF apartment buildings, landlords have forced tenants to accept so-called “smart home” systems that monitor their comings and goings and other behavior.

VICTORY: DHS has withdrawn its subpoena demanding the identities of anonymous Instagram users who posted about ICE raids in LA. The First Amendment protects your right to record police, to share those recordings, and do so anonymously.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ @snowjake.bsky.social @aclu.org

Today @aclu-norcal.bsky.social and @eff.org filed a lawsuit on behalf of non-profit advocacy groups challenging San Jose’s warrantless searches as violating the California Constitution’s protections against unreasonable searches and right to privacy. www.aclunc.org/news/lawsuit...

Lawsuit Challenges San Jose’s Warrantless ALPR Mass Surveillance | ACLU of Northern CA

aclunc.org

The San Jose PD regularly conducts warrantless searches through its massive license plate reader database, allowing it to reconstruct detailed maps of a person’s movements through the City going back as far as a year. This poses a serious threat to communities’ privacy and freedom of movement.