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Privacy Rights

The ACLU fights the trend toward a surveillance society and works to guarantee that individuals, not governments or corporations, determine how and when others gain access to their personal information.

We work to defend privacy as it relates to medical information, the Internet, consumer information, and more. Here in Colorado, we’ve worked to defend privacy by filing suit to safeguard taxpayer privacy, challenging school officials’ search of students’ text messages, and investigate the disclosure of private phone records to the National Security Agency. We also revealed the existence of the Denver Police Department’s Spy Files—the monitoring and recording of the peaceful protest activities of Denver-area residents, and the file-keeping on the expressive activities of law-abiding advocacy organizations.

Related Cases
2012-12
Police turning minor traffic stops into full-blown searches for marijuana have been a frequent source police-community friction. In this case, Loveland police turned a minor traffic stop into a full-blown search that turned up nothing. READ MORE >
2011-04
The ACLU of Colorado and the national ACLU Women’s Right Project took the first steps towards filing a lawsuit against a Jefferson County public charter school that illegally fired teacher Heather Burgbacher for asserting her right to pump breast milk for her infant child while at work. READ MORE >
2010-20
ACLU lawyers filed suit against the Colorado State Patrol in the wrongful death of an unarmed Grand Junction man who was shot at point-blank range and killed in the summer of 2010 when he refused to allow officers to enter his home without a warrant. READ MORE >