Street Level Surveillance

[Electronic Frontier Foundation]

"Welcome to the Field Guide to Police Surveillance.

EFF’s Street-Level Surveillance project shines a light on the surveillance technologies that law enforcement agencies routinely deploy in our communities. These resources are designed for advocacy organizations, journalists, defense attorneys, policymakers, and members of the public who often are not getting the straight story from police representatives or the vendors marketing this equipment.

Whether it’s phone-based location tracking, ubiquitous video recording, biometric data collection, or police access to people’s smart devices, law enforcement agencies follow closely behind their counterparts in the military and intelligence services in acquiring privacy-invasive technologies and getting access to consumer data. Just as analog surveillance historically has been used as a tool for oppression, we must understand the threat posed by emerging technologies to successfully defend civil liberties and civil rights in the digital age.

The threats to privacy of these surveillance technologies are enormous, as law enforcement agencies at all levels of government use surveillance technologies to compile vast databases filled with our personal information or gain access to devices that can lay bare the intricacies of our daily lives. Use of these surveillance technologies can infringe on our constitutional rights, including to speak and associate freely under the First Amendment or be free from unlawful search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment. Law enforcement also tends to deploy surveillance technologies disproportionately against marginalized communities. These technologies are prone to abuse by rogue officers, and can be subject to error or vulnerability, causing damaging repercussions for those who interact with the criminal justice system.

The resources contained in this hub bring together years of research, litigation, and advocacy by EFF staff and our allies, and will continue to grow as we obtain more information.."
Street Level Surveillance 

COVID-19 Testing

"Coming soon! Order your free COVID-19 Tests at the end of September.

U.S. households will be eligible to order 4 free COVID-19 tests at COVIDTests.gov. The COVID-19 Tests will detect current COVID-19 variants and can be used through the end of the year.

COVID-19 testing can help you know if you have COVID-19 so you can decide what to do next, like getting treatment to reduce your risk of severe illness and taking steps to lower your chances of spreading the virus to others.

Ordering free COVID tests via this website has currently closed. The COVIDtests.gov program distributed over 900 million tests directly to American households. The U.S. government continues to make COVID-19 tests available to uninsured individuals and underserved communities through existing outreach programs. Please contact a HRSA-funded health center or ICATT location near you to learn how to access low- or nocost COVID-19 tests provided by the federal government.

CDC recommends everyone ages 6 months and older receive an updated 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine to protect against the potentially serious outcomes of COVID-19 this fall and winter whether or not they have ever previously been vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine. Data continue to show the importance of vaccination to protect against severe outcomes of COVID-19 and flu, including hospitalization and death. To learn more about the current vaccines, visit the CDC's COVID-19 webpage..."
COVID-19 Testing 

The Federal Budget: an Overview

"The federal budget is a measure of how much the federal government spends and how much revenue it takes in. Typically, annual budgetary data is broken up into fiscal years, which run from October 1 to September 30..^[1]

In fiscal year 2023, the US spent $6.16 trillion on public programs and generated $4.47 trillion in revenue.

What is the federal deficit?

The federal government runs a deficit when it spends more than it takes in as revenue. In 2023, the annual federal deficit was $1.69 trillion. To fund deficits, the government borrows money by selling assets, and this borrowing creates debt..

When the government takes in more than it spends, this is a budget surplus. This last happened in 2001. There’s been a deficit in each fiscal year since.

What is federal debt?

The national debt is the total amount that the federal government owes to investors who it has borrowed from. Effectively, it is a summation of all the federal deficits and surpluses over the country’s history, plus the interest accumulated on that debt over time.
 
As of June 14, 2024, the national debt totaled $34.7 trillion

As a percentage of gross domestic product, the national debt has been historically high in recent years. In 2020, that ratio reached its highest point since 1946.

What does the US government spend money on?

The largest spending categories in the $6.16 trillion federal budget in 2023 were Social Security at 22% of the budget ($1.35 trillion), national defense and veteran support at 18% ($1.13 trillion), transfers to states at 18% ($1.09 trillion), and Medicare at 14% ($848 billion)...
Federal Budget 

Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative

"In June 2021, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a comprehensive effort to recognize the troubled legacy of federal Indian boarding school policies with the goal of addressing their intergenerational impact and to shed light on the traumas of the past.

The announcement directed the Department, under the leadership of Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland, to prepare an investigative report, the first volume of which was released in May 2022, detailing available historical records relating to federal Indian boarding schools and to develop the first official list of sites.

The Department released the second and final volume of the investigative report, in July 2024. The second volume builds on the initial volume to significantly expand on the number and details of institutions to include student deaths, the number of burial sites, participation of religious institutions and organizations, and federal dollars spent to operate these locations. It also included policy recommendations for consideration by Congress and the Executive Branch to continue to chart a path to healing and redress for Indigenous communities and the nation. 

For more information regarding the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, go to the Department’s priority page..."
Federal Indian Boarding School 

Census Bureau Releases 2020 Census Household Data for Detailed Race and Ethnicity Groups, Tribes and Villages

"AUGUST 1, 2024 — The U.S. Census Bureau today released 2020 Census counts of households, along with information on household type and tenure (whether the home is owned or rented) for 300 detailed race and ethnicity groups and 1,187 American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and villages. The 2020 Census Detailed Demographic and Housing Characteristics File B (Detailed DHC-B) provides household information based on the race or ethnicity of the householder (the first adult in a household for whom census responses were provided). 

The Detailed DHC-B data are available for the nation, states, counties, places, census tracts and American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian (AIANNH) areas.

Today’s data product is the companion product to the Detailed DHC-A, which provided total population and the number of males and females by age for the same detailed groups. The Detailed DHC-A was released in September 2023.

The Detailed DHC-B includes data for the household population only. Group quarters (such as college dormitories, prisons or military barracks) are excluded from this data product.

For more information about what the Detailed DHC-B includes, visit the blog “Understanding the Detailed Demographic and Housing Characteristics File B.”.."
2020 Census Household Data