Today, we stand at a crossroads as face recognition technology can now be interfaced with body-worn cameras in real time.
Recognizing the impending threat to our fundamental rights, California Assemblymember Phil Ting introduced A.B. 1215. It will prohibit the use of face recognition, or other forms of biometric technology, such as gait recognition or tattoo recognition, on a camera worn or carried by a police officer.
Californians deserve more broadband Internet options. A.B. 1366 would renew a law that has kept consumers locked into broadband monopolies and raises serious issues for regulation of government emergency services and our privacy. With your help, we can kill the bill in committee, but we have to do it by Tuesday!
Massachusetts has a long history of standing up for liberty. Right now, it has the opportunity to become a national leader in fighting government use of face surveillance. Face surveillance poses a threat to our privacy, chills protest in public places, and gives law enforcement unregulated power to undermine due process. Massachusetts bills S.1385 and H.1538 would place a moratorium on government use of face surveillance, until the legislature passes measures to regulate these technologies, protect civil liberties, and ensure oversight of face surveillance use.
Face recognition technology has disproportionately high error rates for women and people of color, as documented by MIT’s Media Lab and other researchers.
Manufacturers may someday mitigate these risks. Even then, government use of face recognition technology will threaten safety and privacy, amplify discrimination in our criminal justice system, and chill every resident’s free speech.
Tell the City Council, it’s time to ban government use of face recognition technology in Somerville.
In 2013, a patent troll called Personal Audio tried to shake down podcasters, big and small, for licensing fees. With help from Marc Maron and WTF podcast fans, we challenged the podcasting patent in the Patent Office and in the courts.
Now that patent trolls are losing ground in court, they're looking to get a boost in Congress. Working together with lobbyists for big pharma and IP lawyers' groups, patent trolls are working on a bill that will destroy some of our best legal tools for fighting patent trolls.
We're asking for your help: join Marc, and tell Congress that more bad patents won't help.
Right now, Senators are working to remove key legal protections that protect people from patent trolls and other abusers of the patent system.
Senators Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) have published a draft bill that will undermine protections of Section 101 of the U.S. Patent Act.
Section 101 puts important limits on what can be patented. For instance, it bans patents on abstract ideas, natural phenomena, and laws of nature. Our patent laws are supposed to keep those basic ideas unpatented—they are the building blocks of scientific progress, available to all.
Over nearly two decades, the NSA has searched millions of Americans’ telephone call records—all without a warrant or, for the vast majority of these calls, any suspicion of wrongdoing.
It’s time to end the mass telephone Call Detail Records (CDR) program once and for all. Tell your members of Congress to support the Ending Mass Collection of Americans’ Phone Records Act (S. 936, H.R. 1942).
In December 2017, the FCC voted to roll back the 2015 Open Internet Order, giving Internet service providers (ISPs) free reign to engage in unfair and discriminatory data practices. This year, the House of Representatives voted in favor of the Save the Internet Act, which would restore the 2015 net neutrality protections and make them permanent. Tell the Senate to do the same and stand up for real net neutrality!
At a time when we are fighting to keep the future of broadband access from reverting back towards a monopoly, the recently introduced A.B. 1366 mirrors the FCC’s abandonment of consumers.
Tell California's lawmakers to oppose A.B. 1366, and instead promote competition and access—not abandon Californians to their broadband monopoly.
