In 2006, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington launched a Technology and Liberty Project. The project works to ensure that government and business respect civil liberties when they implement new technologies.
We believe that:
- People retain their privacy rights while using technology.
- People have rights in cyberspace to read and express themselves freely, and to associate with others.
- Individuals have a right to manage the release and sharing of their personal information.
- Technology should be employed to facilitate government transparency and oversight.
The project conducts policy research and education, supports the ACLU’s legislative efforts to protect civil liberties and takes legal actions to set precedent and impact government policy. The project also works with various public agencies to protect privacy rights as new technologies are introduced. Here are two examples:
Washington’s Enhanced Driver’s License
This January, Washington began issuing an optional Enhanced Driver’s License (EDL) that allows its holders to enter the U.S. from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean without a passport. However, the license contains a radio frequency identity tag (RFID) that transmits a unique identity number that can be read remotely by receivers at border crossings.
Unfortunately, the unique identity number also can be accessed by law enforcement, retailers and others, without the knowledge or consent of the license holder, to track an individual’s movements away from the border. The ACLU successfully lobbied the Department of Licensing and the Washington Legislature to pass a bill that makes it illegal to possess, read or capture the identity number on an EDL without its holder’s express knowledge and consent.
In July 2007, the ACLU addressed the larger privacy issues relating to RFID use in identity documents by organizing and co-sponsoring a symposium with the Shidler Center of Law, Commerce and Technology at the University of Washington School of Law. The event brought together academic, industry and community leaders to discuss policies that will both protect our civil liberties and allow for innovation.
One Regional Card for All: ORCA Transportation Project
Planned for 2009, the ORCA card system (One Regional Card for All) will allow riders to use a single card for many forms of public transportation in King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties. In analyzing public documents about ORCA, the ACLU learned the system behind this card would not only create a personally identifiable record of the date, time and route number for each use of the card, but that such records were to be broadly shared with employers and agencies that subsidize transit passes.
The ACLU was concerned that privacy would be compromised by unnecessary sharing of information about a person’s travels. The ACLU met with transit officials, attended hearings and submitted testimony urging privacy protections. This spring the participating transit agencies agreed to ensure that an individual’s transaction information could not be viewed on the Web or in standard reports by organizations that subsidize transit passes.
Go Back