Privacy

The rise in violent property crimes, auto thefts and traffic violations in the Bay Area city has police looking to surveillance technology for an upper hand. But not everyone is convinced it is worth the privacy tradeoffs.

It’s unclear exactly how many license plate readers are active in the state, though nearly 100 have been purchased by state and local law enforcement to date. The technology has raised fierce debate about privacy.

The county is currently looking into whether data was exposed during a breach of a file transfer system used by a billing provider for its fire and emergency services system.

Legislative momentum to stop law enforcement from using Google data obtained through so-called geofence warrants stalled as lawmakers struggled to find a way to increase data protection for abortion seekers.

In an email sent Tuesday to city employees, City Manager T.C. Broadnax said information stored by the city’s human resources department was exposed in the May cyber attack against city systems.

The University of Connecticut will not renew its contract with Navigate 360, formerly known as Social Sentinel, after the social media surveillance company frequently spammed police officers with false alerts.

Baltimore County Police will start using a controversial gunshot detection technology in two southern precincts next week. Opponents have questioned the reliability and accuracy of the technology.

The city’s Surveillance Advisory Board is set to review the police department's gunshot detection system, possibly answering the question of how effective it is in reducing officer response times to potential firearm violence.

The city's Public Safety Committee has voted to support the San Diego Police Department's controversial smart streetlight proposal this week. The technology, complete with license plate readers, was first pitched in March.

It’s difficult to see how artificial intelligence systems work, and to see whose interests they work for. Regulation could make AI more trustworthy. Until then, user beware.

The lawsuit alleges facial recognition technology used on the app until November 2021 violated Illinois’ biometric privacy law, which is considered the strictest in the nation.

San Diego officials on Tuesday gave themselves another three years to review the city’s many surveillance technologies, an extension that should prevent the tools from being put on pause.

Odessa Mayor Javier Joven is demanding transparency around the investigation into a data breach that stemmed from a former city employee’s account. The account was not disabled after the employee’s termination.

The Chula Vista City Council last week approved creating an advisory commission that will be tasked with reviewing and recommending best practices on city technology use policies.

A California school district has signed onto an effort by districts across the country to hold companies such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube accountable for contributing to a mental health crisis among young people.

The nation’s two largest public pension funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS, have provided more details about their actions after a data breach exposed the personal information of 1.2 million government retirees and beneficiaries.

Chief privacy officer roles exist in 21 states and counting. As the job gains traction in government, we look at where those IT leaders sit, how they collaborate with their peers and where the field is going.

An annual list of the top 40 most-accessed ed-tech tools for K-12 schools in the United States, now in its sixth year, put GoGuardian, Securly and Study.com alongside the likes of Google, Scholastic and YouTube.