Privacy includes a diverse group of rights, including the right to be
free from unreasonable government surveillance, the right to medical and
data privacy, the right of consenting adults to choose their sexual relationships,
and the right to reproductive freedom. (Please see our pages on lesbian
and gay rights and reproductive rights
for additional information.)
National ACLU on privacy >>
Press Releases - Litigation
Legal Advocacy and Policy Work
Legislative Reports - Resources - Events
ACTION ALERT: Tell Congress, Don’t Let Our Right To Privacy Expire
Posted 11/29/12 - Our rights are in danger. The Bill of Rights was intended to grant all Americans protection from unreasonable government intrusions into our lives. Two decades ago, Congress recognized that the courts were not keeping up with the times, so it passed a law to preserve privacy rights in electronic communications. The 1986 law made some critical reforms, but came from an era with no Google, no Facebook, no World Wide Web. Now, that law needs to be updated to ensure that our rights don’t vanish as our lives move into the cloud.
Read more and take action >>
ACLU Seeks Details On Automatic License Plate Readers In Massive Nationwide Request
Posted 7/30/12 - The ACLU of Utah joined American Civil Liberties Union affiliates in 35 states in sending requests today to local police departments and state agencies that demand information on how they use automatic license plate readers (ALPR) to track and record Americans’ movements.
Read more >>
ACLU of Utah Urges Utah State Board Of Education To Protect Privacy Of Students Taking Military Entrance Exam
Posted 7/19/12 - Yesterday, the ACLU of Utah sent a letter to State Superintendent of schools Larry Shumway raising grave concerns about the privacy implications of Utah public high schools’ use of the Armed Service Vocational Aptitude Battery test, also known as the ASVAB. The ASVAB, promoted as a voluntary “Career Exploration Program,” is a recruiting tool used by the U.S. military. According to the National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy, in the 2009-10 school year, 8,365 Utah high school students took the ASVAB. The national group estimates that about 90% of those students’ results and information were provided to the U.S. military without the consent of their parents.
Read more >>
Details of License Plate Scanning By Utah Law Enforcement Sought
Posted 5/25/12 - Today, on the eve of one of the busiest driving weekends of the year, the ACLU of Utah sent GRAMA requests to the Utah Highway Patrol, the Ogden City Police Department, and the Iron County Sheriff's Office seeking information about their use of automated license plate recognition ("ALPR") technology. During this year's interim session of the Utah Legislature, the Beaver County Sheriff sought authorization for the federal Drug Enforcement Agency to use ALPR technology on certain parts of I-15.
Read more >>
DEA Recording Americans’ Movements on Highways, Creating Central Repository of Plate Data
Posted 5/18/12 - The DEA wants to capture the license plates of all vehicles traveling along Interstate 15 in Utah, and store that data for two years at their facility in Northern Virginia. And, as a DEA official told Utah legislators at a hearing this week (attended by ACLU of Utah staff and covered in local media), these scanners are already in place on “drug trafficking corridors” in California and Texas and are being considered for Arizona as well. The agency is also collecting plate data from unspecified other sources and sharing it with over ten thousand law enforcement agencies around the nation.
Read more >>
Marina Lowe, ACLU of Utah Legislative & Policy Counsel, is interviewed by KSL TV >>
Press Releases
ACLU Seeks Details On Automatic License Plate Readers In Massive Nationwide Request (7/30/12)
ACLU Of Utah Seeks Information On Utah Police Agencies' License Plate Data Collection (5/25/12)
ACLU of Utah Seeks Details on Government Cell Phone Tracking (8/3/11)
Attorney General Shurtleff Urged to Reject Using Information from "the list" in Criminal Prosecutions (8/26/10)
ACLU of Utah Joins Nationwide Letter to DHS Secretary Criticizing Response to and Potential Use of the List (7/29/10)
Swift Action to Address Stolen Information on List of Names Was Correct Response (7/16/10)
University
of Utah Daily Chronicle articles on Student Week of Action to Oppose the
PATRIOT Act (11/6/03)
Utah Supreme Court Decision a Win for Personal
Privacy (3/15/02)
The
ACLU of Utah Questions Proposed Database for all Arrestees (8/10/99)
The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah to Bring
Privacy Expert to Salt Lake City (1/28/99)
Utah University Reprimands Professors for Privacy
Violation (2/11/98)
Litigation
Salt Lake City v. Keith Roberts (2002)
Roe
v. Utah County
(1999)
Legal Advocacy and Policy Work
Results of Nationwide Government Cell Phone Tracking Records Request Show Frequent Violations of Americans' Privacy Rights (4/2/12)
Supreme Court Remands ACLU Gene Patenting Case to Appeals Court (3/27/12)
Bill Would Force Mandatory Drug Testing For Public Assistance Recipients, Raises Concerns (3/19/12)
Today We Take Back Our Genes (3/6/12)
Traveling this Holiday Season? Some Things Have Changed (11/22/10)
Swift Action to Address Stolen Information on List of Names Was Correct Response (7/16/10)
House Passes Bill Banning Body Scanners at Airports (6/9/09)
ACLU Argues That Patents on Breast Cancer Genes Are Unconstitutional and Invalid (5/12/09)
Citing
new documents revealing the high costs for Utah’s implementation
of the Real ID Act, the ACLU of Utah calls on state lawmakers to
pass a resolution urging Congress to amend the Act (1/12/06)
ACLU of Utah sends the Government
Records Access and Management Task Force comments regarding open government
and personal privacy (9/8/05)
Letter commenting on the recommendations
of the Committee
on Privacy and Public Court Records (1/31/05)
Letter to the MATRIX oversight committee
appointed by Governor Walker requesting that it recommend Utah’s withdrawal
from the MATRIX program (3/19/04)
Formal request pursuant
to the Utah Government Records and Management Act (GRAMA) to allow inspection
and copying of the public records held by the Utah Department of Public
Safety regarding the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange
(MATRIX) (11/18/03)
From Our Legislative Reports
2012 Legislative Report - Privacy and Technology
2011 Legislative Report - Privacy and Technology
2010 Legislative Report - Privacy and Technology
2009 Legislative Report
2008 Legislative Report
2007 Legislative Report
2006 Legislative Report
2005 Legislative Report
2004 Legislative Report - Technology, Liberty and Privacy
2003 Legislative Report
2001 Legislative Report
2000 Legislative Report
1999 Legislative Report
1998 Legislative Report
Resources
Real ID Act: Law Establishes National ID System for Americans (September 2007)
Polygamy and the Constitution (Fall 2006)
Utah’s Bigamy Statute and the Right to Privacy and Religious Freedom (September 2006)
Frequently Asked Questions on Student Privacy, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, and the No Child Left Behind Act (Fall 2005)
Public Has Right
to Know, But How Much? Op - Ed by Dani Eyer, published in the Salt
Lake Tribune (July 2005)
Events
|
