Hacker News with Generative AI: Civil Liberties

Unmarked Vans. Secret Lists. Public Denunciations. Our Police State Has Arrived (nytimes.com)
“It’s the unmarked cars,” a friend who grew up under an Argentine dictatorship said. He had watched the video of the Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil’s abduction. In the video, which Khalil’s wife recorded, she asks for the names of the men in plainclothes who handcuffed her husband.

Police Brutality, Surveillance, Civil Liberties, Argentina

13 points by quantified 9 hours ago | 2 comments

ACLU Obtained ICE's "Alien Enemies Act Validation Guide" (bsky.app)

Civil Liberties, Immigration, Law Enforcement

16 points by perihelions 3 days ago | 28 comments

The Plot Against America (notesfromthecircus.com)
As I write this in early 2025, a quiet revolution is unfolding within the U.S. government. Inside the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), teams of young tech operatives are systematically dismantling democratic institutions and replacing them with proprietary artificial intelligence systems. Civil servants who raise legal objections are being removed. Government databases are being migrated to private servers.

Politics, Artificial Intelligence, Government, Technology, Civil Liberties

15 points by yurivish 18 days ago | 2 comments

Mahmoud Khalil's Detention Is a Trial Run (theatlantic.com)
The federal government has provided no evidence that Mahmoud Khalil has committed a criminal offense, and yet on Saturday night, he was taken by agents of the state from his home and renditioned to a detention facility where neither his pregnant wife nor his lawyer have had access to him.

Civil Liberties, Immigration, Government Overreach

20 points by pmags 21 days ago | 1 comments

Copyright Is a Civil Liberties Nightmare (eff.org)
If you’ve got lawyers and a copyright, the law gives you tremendous power to silence speech you don’t like.

Copyright, Civil Liberties, Law, Free Speech

9 points by hn_acker 59 days ago | 0 comments

Trump Seeks to Paralyze Independent Privacy and Civil Liberties Watchdog (nytimes.com)

Politics, Law, Civil Liberties, Privacy

11 points by colinprince 68 days ago | 1 comments

Police Use of Face Recognition Continues to Wrack Up Real-World Harms (eff.org)
Police have shown, time and time again, that they cannot be trusted with face recognition technology (FRT). It is too dangerous, invasive, and in the hands of law enforcement, a perpetual liability.

Civil Liberties, Surveillance, Technology, Law Enforcement

32 points by haltingproblem 73 days ago | 7 comments

Surveillance and the suppression of civil society in Serbia (amnesty.org)
This report documents how Serbian authorities have deployed surveillance technology and digital repression tactics as instruments of wider state control and repression directed against civil society.

Surveillance, Civil Liberties, Serbia, Human Rights, Repression

71 points by walterbell 90 days ago | 44 comments

"A Digital Prison": Surveillance and the suppression of civil society in Serbia (amnesty.org)
This is the Executive Summary of Amnesty International’s report on surveillance and the suppression of civil society in Serbia. Please click here for the full report in PDF format.

Surveillance, Civil Liberties, Serbia, Human Rights, Amnesty International

26 points by arp242 107 days ago | 1 comments

American cops are using AI to draft police reports, and the ACLU isn't happy (theregister.com)

Artificial Intelligence, Law Enforcement, Civil Liberties, Technology, Journalism

67 points by rntn 111 days ago | 48 comments

Keep our right not to be subjected to decisions based solely on AI (openrightsgroup.org)
Civil society organisations, trade unions, academics and campaigners have called for the government to scrap proposals to remove the right not to be subject to decisions made by automated or AI systems.

Civil Liberties, Artificial Intelligence, Government Regulation

9 points by rjmunro 114 days ago | 0 comments

Destroying an Innocent Person's Home to Arrest a Suspect (techdirt.com)
This may not mean much in the grand scheme of things but it’s good to see these objections on the record. It’s incremental, but in these times, every increment helps, especially when the Supreme Court seems actively disinterested in discussing cases in which government officials might be found to be in the wrong.

Law, Government, Civil Liberties, Justice

10 points by hn_acker 119 days ago | 1 comments

Senators say TSA's facial recognition program is out of control (gizmodo.com)
A bipartisan group of 12 senators has urged the Transportation Security Administration’s inspector general to investigate the agency’s use of facial recognition, saying it poses a significant threat to privacy and civil liberties.

Privacy, Civil Liberties, Facial Recognition, Government Surveillance, Transportation Security

205 points by pseudolus 129 days ago | 226 comments

EFF to Second Circuit: Electronic Device Searches at Border Require a Warrant (eff.org)
EFF, along with ACLU and the New York Civil Liberties Union, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit urging the court to require a warrant for border searches of electronic devices, an argument EFF has been making in the courts and Congress for nearly a decade.

Civil Liberties, Law, Technology, Privacy

43 points by gslin 145 days ago | 8 comments

It's legal for police to use deception in interrogations. Some want that to end (text.npr.org)
It's legal for police to use deception in interrogations. Advocates want that to end.

Law Enforcement, Interrogations, Civil Liberties, Justice System

281 points by everybodyknows 145 days ago | 258 comments

How Many U.S. Persons Does Section 702 Spy On? The ODNI Needs to Come Clean (eff.org)
EFF has joined with 23 other organizations including the ACLU, Restore the Fourth, the Brennan Center for Justice, Access Now, and the Freedom of the Press Foundation to demand that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) furnish the public with an estimate of exactly how many U.S. persons’ communications have been hoovered up, and are now sitting on a government server for law enforcement to unconstitutionally sift through at their leisure.

Privacy, Surveillance, Government, Law Enforcement, Civil Liberties

18 points by hn_acker 162 days ago | 1 comments

Lawsuit Argues Warrantless Use of Flock Surveillance Cameras Is Unconstitutional (404media.co)
A civil liberties organization has filed a federal lawsuit in Virginia arguing that widespread surveillance enabled by Flock, a company that sells networks of automated license plate readers, is unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment.

Surveillance, Law, Civil Liberties, Fourth Amendment, Technology

20 points by aspenmayer 163 days ago | 3 comments

Police Want the Password to Your Phone (reason.com)
Without a warrant and specific proof of incriminating evidence, police should never be allowed past your phone’s lock screen.

Privacy, Law Enforcement, Technology, Civil Liberties

8 points by miles 170 days ago | 1 comments

Don't ever hand your phone to the cops (theverge.com)
You should never voluntarily hand your phone to a police officer.

Privacy, Law Enforcement, Civil Liberties

37 points by dylan604 190 days ago | 18 comments

Police Chief Says Cops Have a 5th Amendment Right to Leave Body Cameras Off (reason.com)

Police, Law Enforcement, Constitutional Law, Civil Liberties

232 points by heavyset_go 220 days ago | 146 comments

Police cannot seize property indefinitely after an arrest, federal court rules (reason.com)

Law, Government, Civil Liberties, Property Rights

840 points by throwup238 227 days ago | 464 comments

AFP Spent $500k Trying to Lock Up Autistic 13-Year-Old on Terrorism Charges (techdirt.com)