State Legislatures Need to Block Creation of Nightmarish National Identity System

The ACLU has issued legislative recommendations on protecting privacy and accessibility when creating digital IDs.

https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/state-legislatures-need-to-block-creation-of-nightmarish-national-identity-system

Around the country, state legislatures are embracing the creation of a nightmarish new electronic national identification system that has the potential to track everybody — online and off. This system is being created in the form of digital driver’s licenses. At first blush, these can seem harmless. Digital driver’s licenses are just what they sound like: A digital version of your state-issued driver license, permit or non-driver ID, carried in an app on your smartphone.

#id #privacy #aclu #american-civil-liberties-union #civil-liberties #orwellian-nightmare #surveillance #security #digital-id

Why Kamala Harris Must Break the Cycle of Unlawful and Abusive Government Surveillance

The ACLU is calling on a Harris-Walz Administration to halt civil liberties harms caused by the government’s spying on and discriminating against Americans in the U.S. and abroad.

https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/why-kamala-harris-must-break-the-cycle-of-unlawful-and-abusive-government-surveillance

Since this nation’s founding, the executive branch has been granted — or has claimed — immense power to enforce the law, including the power to surveil, investigate, and impose criminal or other sanctions that deprive individuals of their freedoms. Today, national security agencies — including those with law enforcement, intelligence, homeland security, and defense functions — combine their expansive authorities with unprecedented digital tools that peer into our lives and collect immense amounts of information about us.

And don't forget the role of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple in all of this. We are living through a War Against Privacy^TM^.

#privacy #security #surveillance #aclu #american-civil-liberties-union #harris #walz #government-surveillance #nsa #fbi #fisa #civil-liberties

Open Letter to College and University Presidents on Student Protests

Academic freedom and free speech are essential. Universities must protect them.

https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/open-letter-to-college-and-university-presidents-on-student-protests

• Schools must not single out particular viewpoints for censorship, discipline, or disproportionate punishment
• Schools must protect students from discriminatory harassment and violence
• Schools can announce and enforce reasonable content-neutral protest policies but they must leave ample room for students to express themselves
• Schools must recognize that armed police on campus can endanger students and are a measure of last resort
• Schools must resist the pressures placed on them by politicians seeking to exploit campus tensions

#aclu #american-civil-liberties-union #free-speech #freedom #liberty #academic-freedom #university #universities #protests #free-expression #civil-liberties #university-presidents

What can get you in trouble for anti-war speech in Russia?

Wearing blue and yellow, displaying the word “self-censorship” in public, displaying a blank poster in public, etc.

https://www.hrw.org/video-photos/interactive/2022/08/22/what-can-get-you-trouble-anti-war-speech-russia

Actually, the "blank" poster read "*** *****." That was assumed to be an anti-war message.

So, Mr. Putin, I would like to tell you

*** *** * ********** *********** ******* ******** **** ** ****** ******.

#hrw #human-rights-watch #human-rights #free-speech #civil-liberty #civil-liberties #war #anti-war #russia #putin #ukraine

Victory! Another Court Protects the Right to Record Police

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/07/victory-another-court-protects-right-record-police

When people fear that the police are about to break the law, they pull out their phones and hit “record.” Doing so promotes police accountability and public discussion of important issues. So, it is great news that yet another federal appellate court has ruled that people have a First Amendment right to record on-duty police. With this ruling, the Tenth Circuit has joined six other federal appellate courts: the First, Third, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits.

#police #civil-liberty #civil-liberties #recording-police #record-police #civil-right #civil-rights

A Bleak Week for Rights in the UK

Eroding Civil Liberties Against Backdrop of Falling Living Standards Will Cause Harm

https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/04/30/bleak-week-rights-uk

To say the United Kingdom government was busy over the past week would be a classic British understatement. It steamrolled through parliament four separate pieces of legislation that will do real harm to people’s rights.

#uk #rights #civil-rights #human-rights #human-rights-watch #hrw #civil-liberties #living-standards #cost-of-living #nationality-and-borders-bill #elections-bill #judicial-review-and-courts-bill