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Company

ACLU

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64 articles stable

A 2022 Clearview AI settlement limiting business access to its facial-recognition database anchors the ACLU’s tech coverage around civil liberties in surveillance, speech and algorithmic systems.

Who they are

The ACLU appears in this coverage as a civil-liberties legal and advocacy organization intervening where technology platforms, government policy and data-intensive systems affect speech, privacy, discrimination and surveillance. Its role ranges from litigation and Supreme Court briefs to investigations, public criticism and collaboration on document review.

The recent arc

Recent coverage has shifted from the organization’s earlier, high-visibility fights with Facebook, Amazon and Trump-era policy toward the civil-rights consequences of automated government decision-making and federal platform regulation. The latest story examines racial-bias concerns around New York City’s AI tool for assessing child-abuse risk, while 2023 reporting covered a DOJ inquiry into whether Allegheny County’s predictive child-welfare algorithm discriminated against parents with disabilities.

The tension

The recurring tension is between state and corporate claims of safety, security or platform control and the ACLU’s view of constitutional and civil-rights limits. It challenged Clearview AI’s collection and sale of biometric images, pressed Facebook over surveillance-tool access, opposed restrictions on platforms’ ability to moderate content, and argued that a government TikTok ban would violate First Amendment principles. Its disclosure that it shared donor and website-user data with Facebook and Google for ad targeting also put a privacy-focused organization under scrutiny.

Why it matters

If the coverage trajectory continues, the ACLU’s tech role will increasingly test whether protections developed for speech, privacy and equal treatment can constrain public-sector AI and platform regulation before those systems become harder to contest. The outcomes remain uncertain, but the Clearview settlement and the organization’s platform-speech interventions show that litigation and advocacy can shape access rules as well as public debate.

ACLU has appeared in 64 articles since 2015-04. Coverage peaked in 2020Q2 with 8 articles. Frequently mentioned alongside Facebook, Trump, Twitter, Google.

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Coverage Timeline

2025-05-21
The Markup

New York City's AI tool, launched in 2018 to score families at risk for child abuse using factors like their neighborhood, is raising racial bias concerns

“They target you from the minute you step out of foster care,” Hamblin said.  “They have this microscope on you, and for them to build a case based off your prior records of you being in care—it's not...

2023-03-16
Associated Press

Source: DOJ is investigating whether the use of a predictive child welfare algorithm in PA's Allegheny County discriminates against parents with disabilities

For the two weeks that the Hackneys' baby girl lay in a Pittsburgh hospital bed weak from dehydration, her parents rarely left her side … Tweets: @apocalypticanow , @ap , and @rebeccakmccray Tweets: @...

2023-01-27
The Atlantic 61 related

Donald Trump and Facebook have both decayed since his ban, and despite his unpredictability and tech's recent wild swings, his reinstatement may not matter much

Trump is key to social media company's success Travis Gettys / Raw Story : Trump official: Former president would look ‘pathetic’ if he returns to Facebook — and destroy his ‘useless’ Truth Social pla...

2021-11-23
Gizmodo 4 related

Gizmodo plans to publish the Facebook Papers in batches, redacting sensitive information with help from NYU, UMass Amherst, Columbia, Marquette, and the ACLU

Independent experts from NYU, UMass Amherst, Columbia, Marquette, and the ACLU are partnering with Gizmodo to responsibly publish this historic leak.

2021-04-05
Fortune

ACLU discloses that it shares personally identifiable info of its website users and donors with platforms like Facebook, Google, and others, for ad targeting

2021-04-04
Fortune 2 related

ACLU discloses that it shares personally identifiable info of its website users and donors with platforms like Facebook, Google, and others, for ad targeting

The American Civil Liberties Union revealed that it shares data with a company it regularly criticizes for privacy blunders: Facebook.

2021-01-12
TechCrunch 25 related

Following Trump's ban on Facebook and Twitter, alternative social apps and private messengers top the app stores, including Signal, Telegram, MeWe, and CloutHub

A handful of unelected tech executives have tremendous influence on public discourse. Tweets: Evan Greer / @evan_greer : i know no one wants to hear this but it is a short path from Apple, Google, and...

2020-10-11
TechCrunch

HomeWAV, a video visitation provider used by prisons across the US, exposed private calls of inmates with their families and attorneys, on an unprotected server

Thousands of calls were spilling from an unprotected server.  —  Fearing the spread of coronavirus, jails and prisons remain on lockdown. Tweets: @zackwhittaker , @somilbtrivedi , @lorakolodny , @zack...

2020-05-21
TechCrunch 31 related

Twitter is testing a feature that lets a tweet's author limit who can reply, giving the options of Everyone, People You Follow, and Only People You Mention

the chance for a nobody to be heard by a somebody, or for a somebody who's full of BS to get called on it in a way that rarely happens anywhere else. https://onezero.medium.com/... https://twitter.com...

2020-04-13
The Verge 19 related

Apple says COVID-19 contact tracing apps can include duration of proximity when deciding what is a proximity event, potentially limiting false positive pings

Surveillance and the pandemic: it doesn't have to be a nightmare Sergio De Simone / InfoQ : Google and Apple Jointly Working on Contact Tracing for iOS and Android Samantha Wiley / iLounge : Apple and...

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