All posts by Midnightschildren

Media Ownership

18 Privacy Groups Say Hearings Must Include Them

 

18 prominent privacy groups (including Media Alliance) wrote to the Senate Commerce Committee objecting to hearings held on national privacy legislation that included absolutely no consumer or privacy rights advocates.

The letter states ” There is little point in asking industry groups how they would like to be regulated. ”

MultiChannel News Coverage

[pdf-embedder url=”https://media-alliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Consumer-Privacy-Expert-Witnesses-fin.pdf” title=”Consumer Privacy Expert Witnesses fin”]

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Press Room, Surveillance

BART Directors Face Pushback On New Security Measures

 

by Maria Sestito.  Published at Oakland North.

Two months after Nia Wilson’s murder, faded signs and withering flowers still greet commuters entering Oakland’s MacArthur BART station. The 18-year-old was fatally stabbed, and her older sister, Letifah, was also injured in the July 22 attack. Now transit officials are calling for upgraded security measures that they argue will improve safety, although members of some community organizations, including Oakland Privacy and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California, are concerned about the privacy of riders and what transit authorities will do with the information that will be collected. Continue reading BART Directors Face Pushback On New Security Measures →

Press Room

Thousands of License Plates Inadvertently Recorded at MacArthur BART Station

By Melissa Colorado- NBC Bay Area. Originally published here.

Tens of thousands of license plates were recorded at a BART station and stored in a database that could have been accessed by federal immigration officials, the transit agency revealed Thursday.

Privacy and immigration advocates said the action contradicts BART’s sanctuary policy, and BART’s police chief said the license plate reader was taken down from the MacArthur station parking lot after police had realized it had been accidentally turned on.

The camera is now sitting in storage somewhere. But that has not quelled the concerns.

“I don’t think how many times I park at MacArthur BART is any of the business of the Department of Homeland Security, and I’m a citizen,” rider Tracy Rosenberg of Albany said

Rosenberg uses BART nearly every day. She’s 100 percent certain BART police snapped a picture of her license plate and stored that information in a database last year.

“I’m absolutely positive that it’s there because I did park at MacArthur BART during that period of time,” she said.

In 2015, BART police had set up a license plate reader in the parking lot with the intention of stopping car thieves. But the BART board stopped police from using it, until a surveillance policy was put in place. BART police Chief Carlos Rojas admitted someone activated the technology by accident

“There were license plates of individuals that entered the BART parking lot that were transmitted and shared and subsequently deleted from the system,” Rojas said.

That information was shared with the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, which can also share information with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The center’s director said ICE could have accessed the information only if it was looking for a person who was wanted for a violent crime.

“There are a lot of things that we have to explain as directors to our constituents,” BART Director Bevan Dufty said.

ICE released a statement, saying in part, “The agency does not specifically quantify what method of intelligence they use that leads to each arrest.”

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Accountability and Representation

Guidelines for Media Literacy Education – An Overview by MA’s Interns

 

MA spring/summer interns Keli Gabinelli, a recent graduate from NYU’s Steinhardt School and Koroosh Darabi Farsi, a senior at NorthGate High School in Walnut Creek took a look at the CA Legislature fumbling around yet again with creating media literacy curriculum in CA schools – and decided to write a little overview about why Media Literacy matters to young people and what they want to see in the schools.

We hope you enjoy their summary.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://media-alliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Guidelines-on-Media-Literacy-and-Digital-Citzenship.pdf” title=”Guidelines on Media Literacy and Digital Citzenship”]

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Internet Freedom

CA Passes Strongest Net Neutrality Legislation In The Nation

 

Update: At 5pm on September 30, 7 hours before the deadline, Senate Bill 822 was signed into law, and California enacted the strongest net neutrality protections in the country, 10 months after the FCC repeal in December of 2017.

After a saga worthy of a Greek sailing epic, the California Legislature sent Senate Bill 822,  the strongest statewide Net Neutrality bill yet to the states governor, Jerry Brown, for a signature.

If enacted, Senate Bill 822 would entirely restore consumer protections lost in the December 2017 FCC repeal driven by Ajit Pai to the people of the state that created the Internet. Continue reading CA Passes Strongest Net Neutrality Legislation In The Nation →

Internet Freedom

24 Social Justice Organizations Write That Kavanaugh Is A Threat to Net Neutrality

 

24 prominent social justice groups wrote to the United States Senate to highlight Supreme Court nominee Kavanugh’s disturbing take on the 1st Amendment as expressed in his dissent in USTA vs FCC, the case that upheld the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet ruling in all respects.

Kavanaugh pointed to the “free speech of companies” and asserted  that broadband providers should have the liberty to “exercise editorial discretion about what content to carry or favor.” Continue reading 24 Social Justice Organizations Write That Kavanaugh Is A Threat to Net Neutrality →

Accountability and Representation, Press Room

Assembly Resolution 268 Prioritizes Educational Technology in Schools

 

Media Alliance was happy to support local Assemblyperson Tony Thurmond (AD-15) in his effort to draw attention to educational technology needs in CA public schools with ACR 268.

We joined Computer Using Educators, the Napa Office of Education and the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) in support.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://media-alliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/ACR-268-Ed-Tech-Presentation-Press-Release4.pdf” title=”ACR 268 Ed Tech Presentation Press Release4″]

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