News & Commentary

In a step forward for patients’ privacy rights, the ACLU today announced the favorable settlement of a lawsuit it had filed against the RI Department of Health in 2010, challenging the adequacy of rules the agency had adopted to implement a centralized database of patient health care records. The Health Information Exchange (HIE), authorized by the General Assembly in 2008, allows medical personnel to routinely access a patient’s entire medical file, including mental health records and other sensitive medical information.

The ACLU of Rhode Island has urged the Rhode Island Department of Health (DOH) to reexamine a proposed regulation that would force children out of day care and childcare providers out of work if they are not vaccinated for the flu, even if they are unvaccinated for medical reasons. In testimony submitted to the DOH, the ACLU called the regulation a “serious intrusion on the ability of individuals and families to make their own medical decisions.”

As outrage mounts over the disclosure that the federal government obtained millions of phone call information records from Verizon as a routine matter, the Rhode Island General Assembly is poised to pass a bill that would specifically allow both federal and state officials to similarly obtain the location tracking information of any cell phone subscriber for any reason and at any time.

The ACLU of Rhode Island issued a statement today in response to the breaking news story that the U.S. government is secretly collecting records of calls made by Verizon customers. 

A statement in response to a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which covers Rhode Island, holding that police are generally required to obtain a warrant before searching the contents of an arrestee’s cell phone.

The Rhode Island ACLU today joined with affiliates in 37 other states in filing open records requests with local police departments and state agencies to find out how they use automatic license plate readers (ALPR) to track and record Americans’ movements.

The ACLU of Rhode Island is offering to the public a free 36-page booklet entitled “Your Rights to Workplace Privacy in Rhode Island.” As its title indicates, the booklet answers commonly-asked questions about employees’ privacy rights in the state.

RI ACLU executive director Steven Brown issued the following statement today in response to news reports that Providence police have used special infra-red technology to determine whether people have been sleeping overnight inside the tents in Burnside Park where the “Occupy Providence” protest is taking place:

The RI ACLU has urged the Providence City Council to reject a proposal by Mayor Angel Taveras to authorize a private company to use car-mounted license-plate scanners to enforce overnight parking laws. The proposal, part of the Mayor’s plan for a permanent overnight parking permit program, would authorize a private vendor to use specially-equipped vehicles to automatically scan license plates, checking them against a registration database and flagging those cars parked overnight without a permit.