Two local tech leaders to fund new ACLU efforts

The local ACLU today announced its Technology for Liberty and Justice for All program, funded initially by $2 million in donations and challenge grants from Vertex founder Joshua Boger and Akamai Vice Chairman Paul Sagan:

The goal of the Technology for Liberty Project is to ensure that expressive, associational, and privacy rights are strengthened rather than compromised by new technology, and to protect these core liberties against intrusive corporate and government practices that rely on new technology to undermine basic rights. The initial focus of the Technology for Liberty Project will be on ensuring government transparency and effective warrant requirements for government location tracking, surveillance, data-mining, and eavesdropping, as well as reining in the deployment of military weapons and surveillance technology, including drones, by local city and town police departments.

The goal of the Justice for All Project is to ensure that equal protection and due process protections guaranteed by the Constitution and Massachusetts Declaration of Rights are extended to all people in the Commonwealth, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity. The initial focus of the Justice for All Project will be on racial justice issues, particularly closing down the school-to-prison pipeline and protecting the human rights of immigrants.