Flock Safety is adding “human distress” detection to its Raven gunshot system, microphones on city streets that can now flag “screaming.” Civil liberties advocates warn: these aren’t just sensors, they’re surveillance mics.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/flocks-gunshot-detection-microphones-will-start-listening-human-voices

#privacy #surveillance #civilrights #eff

New class action lawsuit filed against the federal government's consolidation of personal information. #PrivacyAct https://www.npr.org/2025/09/30/nx-s1-5558312/privacy-personal-data-trump-lawsuit-dogeC

Judge dismisses police union challenge to San Francisco's ban on pretextual #trafficstops saying the union had failed to come up with a single example of when the policy would have prohibited them from enforcing state laws. https://missionlocal.org/2025/09/judge-dismisses-sf-police-union-lawsuit-traffic-stop-policy/

3 years after Berkeley secretly borrowed #drones to fly over the Solano Stroll, the City is moving to openly purchase their own drones. https://www.berkeleyside.org/2025/09/29/bpd-drone-proposal-terry-taplin-berkeley-city-council

Lousiana issues a #warrant seeking the arrest of a California physician for dispensing #abortion drugs by mail order. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/louisiana-seeks-arrest-of-california-doctor-accused-of-mailing-abortion-pills/

Polling shows that people want online platforms to moderate their own content and they don't want government to censor information. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/most-people-want-platforms-not-governments-be-responsible-moderating-content

In Vallejo, nascent civilian police oversight processes are running into trouble with appointees sounding off about investigations in process on social media. https://openvallejo.org/2025/09/29/vallejo-officials-online-comments-cloud-police-shooting-review/

City of Broadview, IL opens a criminal investigation into an unprovoked chemical munitions attack on the car of a CBS #reporter outside the #ICE detention facility. https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/feds-fire-pepper-ball-at-cbs-chicago-reporters-truck/

#Flock Safety now planning to sell #drones to retail outlets to purse #shoplifters. We wish we were making this up. https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/25/1124088/shoplifters-could-soon-be-chased-down-by-drones/

#Microsoft ends part (although not all) of their server sales to Israel's military intelligence in the first significant victory in the #NoTechforApartheid movement. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/25/microsoft-blocks-israels-use-of-its-technology-in-mass-surveillance-of-palestinians

"All but three of the 257 officers claiming to be working undercover had information available online linking their given name with being a #police officer in Minnesota before the release of the POST data". https://sahanjournal.com/news-partners/undercover-minnesota-police-officers-post-board-mppoa-lawsuit/

@georgetownprivacy.bsky.social found that #immigration agents knowingly took #DNA from US citizens. In hundreds of cases, this was done with no criminal charges, no judicial review, and no justification. www.raidingthegenome.org

Newest California #immigration detention center is operating without permits from the city it is located in. https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/ice-california-city-deport-21055594.php?

SB 274 = a commonsense fix for license plate reader abuse: no more leaks to ICE, no secret hotlists, no endless data hoarding.

The Legislature passed it. Gov. Newsom must sign.

takeaction.salsalabs.org/SB274

#privacy #surveillance #accountability

License plate readers shouldn’t be tools for ICE, Border Patrol, or abusive cops.

SB 274 restores limits + oversight.

Tell Gov. Newsom: sign SB 274 today.

takeaction.salsalabs.org/SB274

#civilrights #privacy #immigration #surveillance

Torre Centinela. Ciudad Juarez soon to get its own #surveillance Dark Tower. https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-chihuahua-border-ai-surveillance-centinela/

ALPR abuse is rampant: leaks to ICE, stalker cops, “personal” hotlists. SB 274 brings accountability: case numbers, reasonable suspicion, 60-day deletion.

Urge Gov. Newsom to sign now.

takeaction.salsalabs.org/SB274

#civilrights #privacy #techpolicy

"Her method? Chasing #ICE officers with her car. Behind the wheel of her Mercedes, a megaphone in hand, Vargas follows federal and plainclothes officers around town — documenting whom they’re detaining and what they’re doing via a camera placed on her dashboard"

https://www.sfgate.com/la/article/angie-the-ice-chaser-soccer-mom-la-21027345.php