Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with aclu

Privacy advocacy

Brian B. — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 12:37:00 -0800

Besides the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Online Privacy Alliance, what groups, if any, protect or lobby for the concept of privacy or anonymity in the United States, and how involved are they?

YouTube Video from the ACLU

John of Michigan — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 22:46:55 -0800

ACLU and teenagers. Video that appeared IN a post on MetaFilter Hey, everyone. Several months ago, in a post on something related to--well, I don't know what exactly--there was a link to a YouTube video, produced by the ACLU, on what teenage drivers (or anyone, actually) should do when stopped by the police. Does anyone have a link for this? I've gone through YouTube and MetaFilter, but I can't seem to find it. I'd like to show this to my students next fall on Constitution Day.

Thanks for your help!

(what?) the Po-lice!

ChrisR — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 23:38:41 -0800

What are my rights, as a canadian citizen, dealing with police? After reading about some disturbing events in the US detailing the arrest and mistreatment of citizens whose only apparent crime was the recording of police activity, I’m interested in looking out for my own rights in that respect, as a Canadian citizen.

I’ve realized that much of what I expect to be true in my interactions with the Police is informed by my consumption of US media, where, for example, there are property rights enshrined in the constitution, and the 4th amendment exists. Here in Canada, neither of those things are true.

I’m not so much interested in what the practical rights are, but rather what my legal rights are.

Woe betide those at CollegeHumor.com

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 23:24:58 -0800

Just how much are the customs/Department of Homeland Security people allowed to go through your personal information on your laptop? Okay, this may sound a bit naive, but bear with me.

I just flew back to the US from Asia and upon arriving in San Francisco International Airport everyone has to go through the customs two step. That's normal; I assume it's because they probably get a lot of people trying to smuggle drugs back or what have you.

As I approached the counter, one of the guys asked if I had a digital camera or a laptop computer. Laptop I said, patting my backpack.

Now, in the past, whenever I have travelled with a laptop the security people -- that is, the folks who x-ray your stuff before you can board -- would swipe it with special Q-Tips (I believe testing for the presence of chemicals/gases), maybe ask me to start it up or wake it from sleep just to make sure it was in fact a working laptop.

This was the first time however that I had flown into the US with my laptop.

So after checking my "normal" luggage, the man takes the laptop over to a desk, plugs it in and boots it up. A minute later he calls me over, turns the laptop to face me and asks me to type in my login password -- the optional password you can set up on a Mac so that you have to type it in before you can get access.

I type it in, and he turns the laptop back around and starts mousepadding around. This is taking a while I think, I mean, obviously it boots up and it's a regular working computer. I pass my time watching one of the guards going through another flyer's luggage. A few minutes later my guy says "Okay, I give up, can you show me where you keep the photos?". So I open the Applications folder and launch iPhoto which has most of my photos.

Now, I'm guessing they're looking for photos of you and your friends at some Vietnamese opium bar, clutching full Ziploc bags and pointing at your suitcase, or something more nefarious like people shooting AK-47s in a camp in the desert.

My question is : ...going through your personal files/photos without any sort of suspicion/warrant... is all of this legal? Isn't there some sort of self-incrimination thing at play here? Or does it fall under the category of "Man, if you're stupid enough to document your idiocy...."?

Did the ACLU get it's torture photos?

Jezztek — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 20:34:17 -0800

Today was supposed to be the day the ACLU got the redacted torture Photos mentioned here I wonder if anyone knows if the Gov made good on the order? I just assumed we would never see them, so I am quite curious how things played out.

What's wrong with Racial Profiling?

odinsdream — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 09:17:11 -0800

Help me convince a Republican that Racial Profiling is Not Good (tm). Yesterday after going through airport security, a co-worker of mine brought up airport security in Israel. According to him, Israel is known to have the "best" airport security (however you define that), because they openly engage in "racial profiling" when choosing passengers to be searched (I'm interested in whether this statement is true, by the way). He further indicated that our airports (in the United States) will never be safe because of "people like the ACLU" and "rights people think they have."

His argument: "We know who the terrorists are, and what they look like, why shouldn't we search them? Instead, because of people like the ACLU, we're searching 60-year-old grandmothers in wheelchairs to be all 'P.C.'"

I can see the rationale in this line of thinking, but what are some concrete arguments for why racial profiling is, among other things, not more effective, and an invasion of privacy?

I'm interested in opening a dialogue with people that share this coworker's position by focusing on issues that realistically affect their lives, so while philosophical positions are appreciated, I'd especially like to hear about real-world examples of racial profiling gone wrong, and particular legal positions concerning racial profiling in real situations.