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Just Two Votes Away from Surveillance Oversight in California

SB21, a California state ordinance that will mandate extensive oversight of police surveillance technology, is just two votes from being penned into law.

Restore the Fourth is urging all Californians, on behalf of Oakland Privacy, to contact state representatives by Friday to urge them to bring the bill out of suspense for Gov. Brown to sign.

You can contact the governor and your state representative here. But more importantly, we urge you to reach out to the following representatives by phone or on Twitter – especially ones marked with an asterisk(*).

PLEASE CALL OR TWEET and tell them to vote FOR SB 21.</span?

*Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher (chair) – Tel: (916) 319-2080

Frank Bigelow (vice chair) – Tel: (916) 319-2005

*Richard Bloom – Tel: (916) 319-2050

*Raul Bocanegra – Tel: (916) 319-2039

*Rob Bonta – Tel: (916) 319-2018

William Brough – Tel: (916) 319-2073

Ian Calderon – Tel: (916) 319-2057

Ed Chau – Tel: (916) 319-2049

*Susan Talamantes Eggman – Tel: (916) 319-2013

Vince Fong – Tel: (916) 319-2034

*Laura Friedman – Tel: (916) 319-2043

James Gallagher – Tel: (916) 319-2003

*Eduardo Garcia -Tel: (916) 319-2056

*Adam Gray – Tel: (916) 319-2021

Reginald Jones-Sawyer  – Tel: (916) 319-2059

Jay Olbernolte – Tel: (916) 319-2033

Eloise Gomez Reyes – Tel: (916) 319-2047

(Tweets to cut and paste):

Please release #SB21 from suspense to end secret mass police #surveillance in CA @LorenaAD80 @JonesSawyer59 @AsmRichardBloom @AsmBocanegra

Please release #SB21 from suspense to end secret mass police #surveillance in CA @RobBonta @IanCalderon @AsmEdChau @AsmSusanEggman 

Please release #SB21 from suspense to end secret mass police #surveillance in CA @AsmEGarciaAD56 @AdamGrayCA @reyes4assembly 

Please release #SB21 from suspense to end secret mass police #surveillance in CA @laurafriedman43 @FrankBigelowCA @vfong @J_GallagherAD3 

Please release #SB21 from suspense to end secret mass police #surveillance in CA @JayObernolte @BillBroughCA 
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Restore the Fourth Files Amicus Brief in Carpenter v. USA

Tuesday, August 8th, 2017 – Restore the Fourth has filed an amicus curiae in the case of Timothy Ivory Carpenter v. United States of America. In this case, cell-site location information (CSLI) was obtained by subpoena from a cellphone carrier pertaining to the suspect’s cellphone.

In submitting this brief, we seek to urge the court on the following points:

  • From the nature of CSLI, it can be derived that privacy is relational: That is, that even when people disclose their information to third parties, that should not mean that they do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
  • CSLI will become more revealing over time: This is due to the increasing density of tower locations, and the increased power of computers to algorithmically parse a given set of information on people’s locations to predict where they will be in the future.
  • Police use of CSLI comes with a high risk of abuse: Such as, usage for LOVEINT (ie. officials with access to government surveillance and data collections utilizing it to spy on lovers, exes, etc.), police concealment of stingray use, and precedents for CLSI used to harass political dissidents abroad.

For these reasons, we urge that the Court should adopt a warrant standard for governmental searches and seizures of CSLI. We hope that the Court will see Carpenter v. USA as an opportunity to make a much-needed reexamination of the ‘third-party doctrine.’

Restore the Fourth would like to thank our counsel, Mahesha Subbaraman, of Subbaraman PLLC, for contributing this brief.

 

Please contact:

Alex Marthews

National Chair

rt4chair@protonmail.com

(781) 258-2936