Bahnson, Jane and Shreve, Wickliffe, Legal Treatises and the Evolution of Civil Rights Case Law (November 7, 2023). Duke Law School Public Law & Legal Theory Series No. 2023-68, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4626237 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4626237 – “During the 2022 term, the Supreme Court cited treatises to change legal precedent in two important civil rights cases. We… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Civil Liberties
Buying Spying: How the commercial surveillance industry works and what can be done about it
Google: “Spyware is typically used to monitor and collect data from high-risk users like journalists, human rights defenders, dissidents and opposition party politicians. These capabilities have grown the demand for spyware technology, making way for a lucrative industry used to sell governments and nefarious actors the ability to exploit vulnerabilities in consumer devices. Though the… Continue Reading
Israel Privately Estimates as Many as 50 Hostages Could Be Dead
“As many as 50 hostages whom Hamas abducted during its Oct. 7 attack could be dead, Israel said privately. The figure, presented during recent talks in Cairo, according to Egyptian officials, has been key in negotiating the release of hostages—alive and dead (🔐 read for free). Israel has publicly acknowledged 29 deaths. If the private… Continue Reading
“Cast as Criminals, America’s Librarians Rally to Their Own Defense”
The New York Times [read free]: “…As America’s libraries have become noisy and sometimes dangerous new battlegrounds in the nation’s culture wars, librarians like Ms. Neujahr and their allies have moved from the stacks to the front lines. People who normally preside over hushed sanctuaries are now battling groups that demand the mass removal of… Continue Reading
Google’s Location Data Policy Update
EPIC: “In December 2023, Google announced an update to its location data policy to provide users with more control over their sensitive location information. While this seems like a promising step in the right direction, we should be mindful of Google’s long history of failing to uphold its privacy obligations and vigilant in monitoring Google’s… Continue Reading
Police Departments Are Turning to AI to Sift Through Millions of Hours of Unreviewed Body-Cam Footage
ProPublica: “…Axon, the nation’s largest provider of police cameras and of cloud storage for the video they capture, has a database of footage that has grown from around 6 terabytes in 2016 to more than 100 petabytes today. That’s enough to hold more than 5,000 years of high definition video, or 25 million copies of… Continue Reading
New York State Passes Law That Could Have Counted Trump’s Actions as Rape
Mother Jones: “On Tuesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation broadening the state’s definition of rape, eliminating the penile penetration requirement. The bill, “Rape Is Rape,” expands the law to include nonconsensual anal, oral, and vaginal sexual contact. Starting in September, New York will be like many other states: The penal code will not limit rape to… Continue Reading
Right-Wing Extremist Terrorism in the United States
ADL Report – “Right-wing extremist terror incidents in the U.S. have been increasing since the mid-2000s, but the past six years have seen their sharpest rise yet. There were just seven right-wing terror incidents in the period 2005-2007, but by 2017-2019 there were 27, which increased to 40 in 2020-2022. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Center… Continue Reading
The thorny push to put body cameras in hospitals and stores
Fast Company: “Once, body cameras were attached only to cops, part of an effort to produce more evidence, de-escalate tense situations, and reduce force and abuse. The jury is still out on how effective they are, but the technology is spreading fast, and not just within policing. Increasingly, other sectors have adopted the cameras, and… Continue Reading
Every Awful Thing Trump Has Promised to Do in a Second Term
Rolling Stone: “Donald Trump reportedly did not expect to win the presidency in 2016, which isn’t surprising considering how ill-prepared he and his team were to take control of the country. He appointed established conservatives to key positions before learning some had personal principles that extended beyond indulging the president’s ego. Trump wreaked havoc on… Continue Reading
AI in Politics Is So Much Bigger Than Deepfakes
The Atlantic [read free]: “…Up to this point, much of the attention on AI and elections has focused on deepfakes, and not without reason. The threat—that even something seemingly captured on tape could be false—is immediately comprehensible, genuinely scary, and no longer hypothetical. With better execution, and in a closer race, perhaps something like the… Continue Reading
There are 3 types of face recognition technology
Fast Company: “Face recognition technologies help identify and apprehend criminal suspects, enhance airport security, and streamline entrances to workplaces. As such, they’re some of the most useful and promising video surveillance applications available today. The technology will become even more widespread as advancements in cloud computing and AI continue to enhance its accuracy and usability.… Continue Reading
