A San Francisco Chronicle tech writer finds hope that state or federal law will be changed to require warrants when law enforcement seeks individuals’ private emails stored by companies such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft. James Temple cites legislation in the state Senate and efforts in Congress that would hold government to tougher standards for obtaining emails. Full Story
Gov. Brown’s budget proposal for California includes a hefty fee for individuals, news media and others who want to inspect court records. The plan would impose a $10 charge for looking up documents, a service now provided for free. The courts now charge $15 to check out a record if a member of the public keeps it for more than 10 minutes. The new plan would exempt fees for people looking up their own cases,
A San Francisco Chronicle columnist asserts that the city is more amenable to free speech when the speech is more agreeable to the city. Debra J. Saunders cites a proposal by city Supervisor David Campos to expand the 8-foot protective zone around abortion-related centers to 25 feet. She maintains that San Francisco would not likely entertain such restrictions on speech if the issue was war or Critical Mass bicycle events. Campos counters that his proposal
The rise of websites and apps that ease access to government information shouldn’t be confused with transparency, says guest columnist Evgeny Morozov in a New York Times op-ed. Morozov, author of “The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom” and “To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism,” says the term “open government” doesn’t necessarily mean the public can readily obtain information to hold government accountable. Instead, the term increasingly means that
The “national security letters” issued by the FBI seeking private information about individuals’ bank accounts, communications and other activities are unconstitutional because they ban recipients from even acknowledging they exist. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston of San Francisco ruled that the FBI must cease issuing the gag orders, but put the decision on hold in anticipation of a government appeal, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, which characterized the order as a “blow against government