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The American Civil Liberties Union has made a name for itself by lobbying for the rights of women, minorities, and other civil groups that have been unfairly or illegally targeted by discriminatory or oppressive actions.

It looks like the ACLU is branching out into new territory. The organization is broadening its horizons from the political arena, stepping into the digital realm with its latest commentary on the citywide Wi-Fi network in the words for San Francisco.

In a statement earlier this week, the ACLU openly criticized policies by both Google and Earthlink, citing that the companies are providing inadequate privacy and free speech protection to potential Wi-Fi users.

In his article, Stephen Lawson outlines some of the ACLU’s particular concerns: The ACLU of Northern California said in a letter to the supervisors on Tuesday that both EarthLink's paid service and Google's free offering would fall short of most of the group's recommendations on collection and sharing of personal data and possible tracking of users.

Among other things, there are no limits on what kind of information EarthLink can or will collect, and terms for the Google service call for requiring "minimal" information on login without defining "minimal," the letter said.

In addition to privacy concerns, the group is worried that knowing information is being collected will cause users to limit what they say and do on the Internet.

Opposition to the Wi-Fi plan has been mounting within the city’s political hierarchy since late last year, and the ACLU’s comments will add more fuel to the fire for those lobbying to rescind the city’s agreement with Google and Earthlink, focusing on pursuing a municipally owned network instead.

Nonetheless, the city and Earthlink agreed on the particulars of the deal last month, and a “proof of concept” network is scheduled for implementation starting in April. With the swelling movement against the plan, however, one wonders if the project will ever actually get off the ground.