EFF Asks Appeals Court to Rule DMCA Anti-Circumvention Provisions Violate First Amendment
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-asks-appeals-court-rule-dmca-anti-circumvention-provisions-violate-first
January 13, 2022, 8:55 PM
Lawsuit Filed on Behalf of Computer Scientist and Security Researcher Seeks to Bar Enforcement of Section 1201 ProvisionsWashington D.C.—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) asked a federal appeals court to block enforcement of onerous copyright rules that violate the First Amendment and criminalize certain speech about technology, preventing researchers, tech innovators, filmmakers, educators, and others from creating and sharing their work.EFF, with co-counsel Wilson Sonsini Goodrich &am...
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EFF Threat Lab’s “apkeep” APK Downloader, Now More Capable and Available in More Places
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/eff-threat-labs-apkeep-apk-downloader-now-more-capable-and-available-more-places
January 13, 2022, 8:21 PM
In September, we introduced EFF Threat Lab’s very own APK Downloader, apkeep. It is a tool that allows us to make the job of tracking state-sponsored malware and combatting the stalkerware of abusive partners easier. Since that time, we’ve added some additional functionality that we’d like to share.
F-Droid
In addition to the ability to download Android packages from the Google Play Store and APKPure, we’ve added support for downloading from the free and open source app repository F-Droi...
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San Francisco Police Illegally Used Surveillance Cameras at the George Floyd Protests. The Courts Must Stop Them
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/san-francisco-police-illegally-used-surveillance-cameras-george-floyd-protests
January 13, 2022, 6:51 PM
Update: This post has been updated to reflect that the hearing date in this case has been moved to January 21.
By Hope Williams, Nathan Sheard, and Nestor Reyes
The authors are community activists who helped organize and participated in protests against police violence in San Francisco after the murder of George Floyd. A hearing in their lawsuit against the San Francisco Police Department over surveillance of Union Square protests is scheduled for Friday. This article was first published in the ...
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Nearly 130 Public Interest Organizations and Experts Urge the United Nations to Include Human Rights Safeguards in Proposed UN Cybercrime Treaty
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/nearly-130-public-interest-organizations-and-experts-urge-united-nations-include
January 13, 2022, 4:35 PM
(UPDATE: Due to the ongoing situation concerning the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Ad Hoc Committee won't hold its first session from 17 to 28 January 2022 in New York, as planned. Further information will be provided in due course).
EFF and Human Rights Watch, along with nearly 130 organizations and academics working in 56 countries, regions, or globally, urged members of the Ad Hoc Committee responsible for drafting a potential United Nations Cybercrime Treaty to ensure human rights pr...
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VICTORY: Google Releases “disable 2g” Feature for New Android Smartphones
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/victory-google-releases-disable-2g-feature-new-android-smartphones
January 12, 2022, 9:50 PM
Last year Google quietly pushed a new feature to its Android operating system allowing users to optionally disable 2G at the modem level in their phones. This is a fantastic feature that will provide some protection from cell site simulators, an invasive police surveillance technology employed throughout the country. We applaud Google for implementing this much needed feature. Now Apple needs to implement this feature as well, for the safety of their customers. 
What is 2G and why is it vulnera...
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Livestreamed Hearing Moved to Jan. 21: EFF Will Ask Court to Issue Judgment Against SFPD for Illegally Spying on Protesters Marching in Support of Black Lives
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/livestreamed-hearing-friday-eff-will-ask-court-issue-judgment-against-sfpd-illegally
January 12, 2022, 6:29 PM
San Francisco Police Violated City Law in Using Private Camera NetworkUpdate: The hearing has been moved to January 21.
San Francisco—On Friday, Jan. 21, at 9:30 am, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the ACLU of Northern California will ask a California state court to find that the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) violated city law when it used a network of non-city surveillance cameras to spy on Black-led protests in 2020 against police violence in the wake of George Floyd’...
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Court Orders Authorizing Law Enforcement To Track People’s Air Travels In Real Time Must Be Made Public
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/court-orders-authorizing-law-enforcement-track-peoples-air-travels-real-time-must
January 11, 2022, 10:54 PM
The public should get to see whether a court that authorized the FBI to track someone’s air travels in real time for six months also analyzed whether the surveillance implicated the Fourth Amendment, EFF argued in a brief filed this week.
In Forbes Media LLC v. United States, the news organization and its reporter are trying to make public a court order and related records concerning an FBI request to use the All Writs Act to compel a travel data broker to disclose people’s movements.
Forbe...
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Standing Up For Privacy In New York State
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/standing-privacy-new-york-state
January 11, 2022, 7:38 PM
New York’s legislature is open for business in the new year, and we’re jumping in to renew our support for two crucial bills that protect New Yorkers’ privacy rights. While very different, both pieces of legislation would uphold a principle we hold dear: people should not worry that their everyday activities will fuel unnecessary surveillance.
The first piece of legislation is A. 7326/S. 6541—New York bills must have identical versions in each house to pass—which protects the confident...
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Podcast Episode: Algorithms for a Just Future
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/podcast-episode-algorithms-just-future
January 11, 2022, 10:41 AM
Episode 107 of EFF’s How to Fix the Internet
Modern life means leaving digital traces wherever we go. But those digital footprints can translate to real-world harms: the websites you visit can impact the mortgage offers, car loans and job options you see advertised. This surveillance-based, algorithmic decision-making can be difficult to see, much less address. These are the complex issues that Vinhcent Le, Legal Counsel for the Greenlining Institute, confronts every day. He has some ideas and...
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“Worst in Show Awards” Livestreams Friday: EFF’s Cindy Cohn and Cory Doctorow Will Unveil Most Privacy-Defective, Least Secure Consumer Tech Products at CES
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/worst-show-awards-livestreamed-friday-effs-cindy-cohn-and-cory-doctorow-will-unveil
January 6, 2022, 11:38 PM
"Cool" Products That Collect Your Data, Lock Out UsersLas Vegas—On Friday, January 7, at 9:30 am PT, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Executive Director Cindy Cohn and EFF Special Advisor and sci-fi author Cory Doctorow will present the creepiest, most privacy-invasive, and unsecure consumer tech devices debuting at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES).EFF, in partnership with iFixit, USPIRG, and Repair.Org, will unveil their 2022 Worst in Show picks, an annual award giv...
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How are Police Using Drones?
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/how-are-police-using-drones
January 6, 2022, 8:32 PM
Across the country, police departments are using myriad means and resources at their disposal to stock up on drones. According to the most recent tally on the Atlas of Surveillance (a project of EFF and the University of Nevada), at least 1,172 police departments nationwide are using drones. And over time, we can expect more law enforcement agencies to deploy them. A flood of COVID relief money, civil asset forfeiture money, federal grants, or military surplus transfers enable more departments t...
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EFF Condemns the Unjust Conviction and Sentencing of Activist and Friend Alaa Abd El Fattah
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/eff-condemns-unjust-conviction-and-sentencing-activist-and-friend-alaa-fatttah
January 4, 2022, 6:37 PM
EFF is deeply saddened and angered by the news that our friend, Egyptian blogger, coder, and free speech activist Alaa Abd El Fattah, long a target of oppression by Egypt's successive authoritarian regimes, was sentenced to five years in prison by an emergency state security court just before the holidays.
According to media reports and social media posts of family members, Fattah, human rights lawyer Mohamed el-Baqer, and blogger Mohamed 'Oxygen' Ibrahim were convicted on December 20 of  "spr...
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Cross-Border Access to User Data by Law Enforcement: 2021 Year in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/cross-border-access-user-data-law-enforcement-year-review-2021
January 3, 2022, 7:29 PM
Law enforcement around the world is apparently getting its holiday wish list, thanks to the Council of Europe’s adoption of a flawed new protocol to the Budapest Convention, a treaty governing procedures for accessing digital evidence across borders in criminal investigations. The Second Additional Protocol (“the Protocol”) to the Budapest Convention, which will reshape how police in one country access data from internet companies based in another country, was heavily influenced by law enf...
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Fighting For A More Open, Balanced Patent System: 2021 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/2021-we-fought-more-open-balanced-patent-system
January 2, 2022, 9:54 PM
At EFF, we’ve always stood up for the freedom to tinker and innovate. Unfortunately, our patent system doesn’t promote those freedoms. In some areas, like software, it’s causing much more harm than good. And the system is rife with patent trolls: companies that are focused on licensing and litigating patents, instead of making things. In 2021, the majority of all patent lawsuits were filed by these trolls. In fact, patent trolls have filed the majority of patent lawsuits for many years now...
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Fighting For You From Coast to Coast: 2021 In Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/fighting-you-coast-coast-year-review-2021
January 2, 2022, 9:54 PM
EFF makes its presence known in statehouses across the country to advocate for strong privacy laws, broadband access, and to protect and advance your digital rights. The pandemic has changed a lot about how state legislators operate in 2021, but one thing has remained the same: EFF steps up to fight for you from coast to coast.  
Golden Opportunities in the Golden State
We helped win a huge victory in for all Californians this year, finally securing an historic $6 billion investment for broadba...
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Police Use of Artificial Intelligence: 2021 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/police-use-artificial-intelligence-2021-review
January 1, 2022, 9:49 AM
Decades ago, when imagining the practical uses of artificial intelligence, science fiction writers imagined autonomous digital minds that could serve humanity. Sure, sometimes a HAL 9000 or WOPR would subvert expectations and go rogue, but that was very much unintentional, right?  
And for many aspects of life, artificial intelligence is delivering on its promise. AI is, as we speak, looking for evidence of life on Mars. Scientists are using AI to try to develop more accurate and faster ways t...
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2021 Year in Review: EFF Graphics
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/10/2021-year-review-eff-graphics
December 31, 2021, 1:33 PM
EFF's small design team sometimes struggles to keep up with the frenetic pace of our activist, legal and development colleagues. Whenever EFF launches a new legal case, activism campaign, tech project, or development campaign, we try to create unique and inspiring graphics to promote it. At EFF, we find that the ability to visualize the issues at hand encourages supporters to engage more fully with our work, to learn more and share more about what we do, and to donate to our cause.
All the...
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In 2021, the Police Took a Page Out of the NSA’s Playbook: 2021 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/2021-police-took-page-out-nsas-playbook
December 31, 2021, 11:57 AM
With increasing frequency, law enforcement has been using unconstitutional, suspicionless digital dragnet searches in an attempt to identify unknown suspects in criminal cases. Whether these searches are for everyone who was near a building where a crime occurred or who searched for a keyword like “bomb” or who shares genetic data with a crime scene DNA sample, 2021 saw more and more of these searches—and more attempts to push back and rein in unconstitutional law enforcement behavior. 
W...
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Every State Has a Chance to Deliver a “Fiber for All” Broadband Future: 2021 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/every-state-has-chance-deliver-fiber-all-broadband-future-2021-review
December 30, 2021, 6:23 PM
This year’s passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)—also known as the bipartisan infrastructure package—delivered on a goal EFF has sought for years. It finally creates a way for people to remedy a serious problem: a severe lack of fiber-to-the-home connectivity. Fiber optics lie at the core of all future broadband access options because it is the superior medium for moving data, with no close comparisons. As a result, global demand for fiber infrastructure is extremel...
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Shining a Light on Black Box Technology Used to Send People to Jail: 2021 Year in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/shining-light-black-box-technology-used-send-people-jail-2021-year-review
December 30, 2021, 12:32 PM
If you're accused of a crime based on an algorithm's analysis of the evidence, you should have a right to refute the assumptions, methods, and programming of that algorithm. Building on previous wins, EFF and its allies turned the tide this year on the use of these secret programs in criminal prosecutions.
One of the most common forms of forensic programs is probabilistic genotyping software. It is used by the prosecution to examine DNA mixtures, where an analyst doesn't know how many people con...
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2021 Year In Review: Sex Online
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/year-review-sex-online
December 29, 2021, 4:26 PM
We don’t entrust Internet companies to be arbiters of morality. We shouldn't hand them the responsibility of making broad cultural decisions about the forms sexuality is allowed to take online. And yet, this last year has been a steady and consistent drum of Internet companies doing just that. Rather than seeking consensus among users, Apple, Mastercard, Amazon, Ebay and others chose to impose their own values on the world, negatively affecting a broad range of people.
The ability to express o...
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Students Are Learning To Resist Surveillance: Year in Review 2021
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/students-are-learning-resist-surveillance-year-review-2021
December 29, 2021, 9:17 AM
It’s been a tough year for students - but a good one for resistance. 
As schools have shuffled students from in-person education to at-home learning and testing, then back again, the lines between “school” and “home” have been blurred. This has made it increasingly difficult for students to protect their privacy and to freely express themselves, as online proctoring and other sinister forms of surveillance and disciplinary technology have spread. But students have fought back, and oft...
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Where Net Neutrality Is Today and What Comes Next: 2021 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/where-net-neutrality-today-and-what-comes-next-2021-review
December 28, 2021, 11:12 AM
When all is said and done—and there are some major steps to take in 2022—the United States will mark 2021 as the last year without federal net neutrality protections. Next year is when we will undo the 2017 repeal and once again put the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) back to work doing its job: protecting consumers from bad actors, working towards universal and net-neutral internet access, and accurately assessing the playing field in telecommunications.
With President Biden’s app...
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In 2021, We Told Apple: Don't Scan Our Phones
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/2021-we-told-apple-dont-scan-our-phones
December 28, 2021, 10:53 AM
Strong encryption provides privacy and security for everyone online. We can’t have private conversations, or safe transactions, without it. Encryption is critical to democratic politics and reliable economic transactions around the world. When a company rolls back its existing commitments to encryption, that’s a bad sign. 
In August, Apple made a startling announcement: the company would be installing scanning software on all of its devices, which would inspect users’ private photos in iC...
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We Encrypted the Web: 2021 Year in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/we-encrypted-web-2021-year-review
December 27, 2021, 12:40 PM
In 2010, EFF launched its campaign to encrypt the entire web—that is, move all websites from non-secure HTTP to the more secure HTTPS protocol. Over 10 years later, 2021 has brought us even closer to achieving that goal. With various measurement sources reporting over 90% of web traffic encrypted, 2021 saw major browsers deploy key features to put HTTPS first. Thanks to Let’s Encrypt and EFF’s own Certbot, HTTPS deployment has become ubiquitous on the web.
Default HTTPS in All Browsers
For...
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The Battle for Communications Privacy in Latin America: 2021 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/battle-communications-privacy-latin-america-2021-review
December 27, 2021, 11:49 AM
Uncovering government surveillance and fighting for robust and effective legal safeguards and oversight is a continuous battle in Latin American countries. Surveillance capabilities and technologies are becoming more intrusive and prevalent, surrounded by a culture of secrecy and entrenched views that pit security against privacy. There are several challenges to face. Alongside growing resistance against government biometric surveillance, the long-standing problem of unfettered communications su...
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Vaccine Passports: 2021 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/vaccine-passports-2021-review
December 26, 2021, 10:04 AM
2021 has been the year of vaccines, in light of the continuing worldwide pandemic. It has also been the year of vaccine passports. To fully tell this story, let’s go back to 2020, because the term vaccine passport as many people use it has changed since then.
Early in the pandemic, there were discussions of “immunity passports” that would declare that someone had recovered from COVID-19, and which we thought were a bad idea. We, along with other civil liberties organizations, are against ...
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2021 Was the Year Lawmakers Tried to Regulate Online Speech
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/2021-was-year-lawmakers-tried-regulate-online-speech
December 26, 2021, 9:23 AM
On the biggest internet platforms, content moderation is bad and getting worse. It’s difficult to get it right, and at the scale of millions or billions of users, it may be impossible. It’s hard enough for humans to sift between spam, illegal content, and offensive but legal speech. Bots and AI have also failed to  rise to the job.
So, it’s inevitable that services make mistakes—removing users’ speech that does not violate their policies, or terminating users’ accounts with no expla...
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Stalkerware: 2021 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/stalkerware-2021-review
December 25, 2021, 9:45 AM
Stalkerware—that is, commercially-available apps that can be covertly installed on another person’s device for the purpose of monitoring their activity without their knowledge or consent—is nothing new, but 2021 has underscored just how prevalent and dangerous these apps continue to be and how important it is for companies and government to take action to rein them in. 
2021 saw the 2-year anniversary of the Coalition Against Stalkerware, of which EFF is a founding member. In 2021, the C...
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The Atlas of Surveillance Turns the Dragnet on Police Tech: 2021 Year in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/atlas-surveillance-turns-dragnet-police-tech-2021-year-review
December 25, 2021, 9:09 AM
This past year, EFF's Atlas of Surveillance project mobilized hundreds of student journalists and volunteer researchers to turn the tables on police spying by building the largest ever public-facing database of police surveillance technology.
As EFF has long documented, local law enforcement agencies around the United States are amassing arsenals of surveillance technology to gather as much data as possible on the public. From automated license plate readers (ALPRs) that track our vehicles to r...
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The Future is in Interoperability Not Big Tech: 2021 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/future-interoperability-not-big-tech-2021-review
December 24, 2021, 4:26 PM
2021 was not a good year for Big Tech: a flaming cocktail of moderation failings, privacy breaches, leaked nefarious plans, illegal collusion and tone-deaf, arrogant pronouncements stoked public anger and fired up the political will to do something about the unaccountable power and reckless self-interest of the tech giants.
We’ve been here before. EFF’s been fighting tech abuses for 30 years, and we’re used to real tech problems giving rise to nonsensical legal “solutions,” that don’...
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Pushing Back on Police Surveillance: 2021 Year in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/pushing-back-police-surveillance-2021-year-review
December 24, 2021, 4:04 PM
A year after the police murder of George Floyd, Black-led protests against police violence continue, as does resistance to police departments across the country growing their surveillance toolbelts and unnecessarily amassing troves of personal data. EFF stands with protesters against police abuse, and stands up for the core rights to privacy, speech, and protest threatened by police surveillance. This year we have gone to court to hold police accountable, endorsed regulatory and defunding propos...
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2021 Year in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/2021-year-review
December 23, 2021, 3:28 PM
2021 ended up being a time where we dug into our new realities of distributed work and the ever-changing COVID news. At the same time, news continued to come fast and furious, with the events of one week often obliterating memories of the week before. So it’s helpful for all of us to look back at the last year and remember just what we accomplished. Looking at what we did—at what you, our supporters, helped us do—we can be confident that whatever changes continue to roll in, we will contin...
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Electronic Frontier Alliance Defending Local Communities: 2021 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/electronic-frontier-alliance-defending-local-communities-2021-review
December 23, 2021, 1:56 PM
In another year of masking up, local communities have found enough footing to push back on surveillance tech and fight for our digital rights. Members of the Electronic Frontier Alliance have continued to innovate by organizing workshops and trainings for neighbors, overwhelmingly online, and made important headway on issues like more equitable broadband access, surveillance oversight, and even banning government use of face recognition.
The Electronic Frontier Alliance (EFA) is an information-s...
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Support a Better Web for Everyone & Unlock Grants for EFF
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/support-better-web-everyone-unlock-grants-eff
December 22, 2021, 5:25 PM
During the holiday season you’ll see lots of appeals from worthy causes. Wherever your heart is, there's little doubt that technology amplifies voices and helps build community around the issues that matter most to you. That’s why the Electronic Frontier Foundation fights for your right to express yourself, connect to friends, and explore ideas online. And it's also why EFF needs your help during our Year-End Challenge.
Digital privacy, security, and free speech lift up all the efforts to ma...
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Podcast Episode: The Life of the (Crypto) Party
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/podcast-episode-life-crypto-party
December 21, 2021, 8:10 AM
Episode 106 of EFF’s How to Fix the Internet
Surveillance is always problematic, but it isn’t neutral—it is more often deployed in communities of color than elsewhere. And surveillance technology isn’t objective, either—it often magnifies the biases of its users and creators, affecting already-marginalized individuals far more heavily than others. Matt Mitchell, founder of CryptoHarlem, has an exciting solution for helping undo the damage that pervasive surveillance has done to those w...
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EFF Continues Legal Fight to Release Records Showing How Law Enforcement Uses Cell-site Simulators
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/eff-continues-legal-fight-release-records-showing-how-law-enforcement-uses-cell
December 17, 2021, 5:35 PM
Four years ago, EFF set out on a mission to chase down the paper trail left behind when cops in California use cell-site simulators. This trail has led us to a California appellate court, where next spring we will face-off with San Bernardino County law enforcement over whether they can keep search warrants authorizing electronic surveillance secret from the public indefinitely.
Cell-site simulators (CSSs) mimic cell-phone towers to trick any nearby phones into connecting with them. Police use t...
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EFF to Court: Deny Foreign Sovereign Immunity to DarkMatter for Hacking Journalist
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/eff-court-deny-foreign-sovereign-immunity-darkmatter-hacking-journalist
December 16, 2021, 10:27 PM
When governments or private companies target someone with malware and facilitate the abuse of their human rights, the victim must be able to hold the bad actors accountable. That’s why, in October, EFF requested that a federal court consider its amicus brief in support of journalist Ghada Oueiss in her lawsuit against DarkMatter, a notorious cyber-mercenary company based in the United Arab Emirates. Oueiss is suing the company and high-level Saudi government officials for allegedly hacking her...
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EU's Digital Identity Framework Endangers Browser Security
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/eus-digital-identity-framework-endangers-browser-security
December 15, 2021, 10:46 PM
If a proposal currently before the European Parliament and Council passes, the security of HTTPS in your browser may get a lot worse. A proposed amendment to Article 45 in the EU’s Digital Identity Framework (eIDAS) would have major, adverse security effects on millions of users browsing the web.
The amendment would require browsers to trust third parties designated by the government, without necessary security assurances. But trusting a third party that turns out to be insecure or careless co...
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Apple’s Android App to Scan for AirTags is a Necessary Step Forward, But More Anti-Stalking Mitigations Are Needed
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/apples-android-app-scan-airtags-necessary-step-forward-more-anti-stalking
December 15, 2021, 6:49 PM
This post has been updated to say that Tracker Detect is available internationally.We’re pleased to see Apple has come out with an Android app called Tracker Detect that addresses some of the serious threats to privacy and safety we identified with Apple AirTags when they debuted. Quarter-sized Bluetooth-enabled homing beacons marketed as a way to track lost luggage or keys, AirTags can easily be exploited by stalkers to track and locate their victims.As we explained in May, AirTags can be sli...
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YouTube’s New Copyright Transparency Report Leaves a Lot Out
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/youtubes-new-copyright-transparency-report-leaves-lot-out
December 15, 2021, 5:42 PM
YouTube recently released a transparency report on the status of copyright claims for the first half of 2021. It says it will release these numbers biannually from now on. We applaud this move towards transparency, since it gives researchers a better look at what’s happening on the world’s largest streaming video platform. What is less welcome is the spin.
The major thrust of this report is to calm the major studios and music labels. Those huge conglomerates have consistently pushed for more...
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Have an Open Records Horror Story? Shine a Light by Nominating an Agency for The Foilies 2022
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/have-open-tecords-horror-story-shine-light-nominating-agency-foilies-2022
December 14, 2021, 10:13 PM
This post is crossposted at MuckRock and was co-written by Michael Morisy.We are now accepting submissions for The Foilies 2022, the annual project to give tongue-in-cheek awards to the officials and institutions that behave badly—or ridiculously—when served with a request for public records.
Compiled by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and MuckRock, The Foilies run as a cover feature in alternative newsweeklies across the U.S. during Sunshine Week (March 13-19, 2022), through a part...
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Victory! Federal Court Blocks Texas’ Unconstitutional Social Media Law
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/victory-federal-court-blocks-texas-unconstitutional-social-media-law
December 14, 2021, 9:30 PM
On December 1, hours before Texas’ social media law, HB 20, was slated to go into effect, a federal court in Texas blocked it for violating the First Amendment. Like a similar law in Florida, which was blocked and is now pending before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the Texas law will go to the Fifth Circuit. These laws are retaliatory, obviously unconstitutional, and EFF will continue advocating that courts stop them.
In October, EFF filed an amicus brief against HB 20 in Netchoice v....
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Google’s Manifest V3 Still Hurts Privacy, Security, and Innovation
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/googles-manifest-v3-still-hurts-privacy-security-innovation
December 14, 2021, 6:09 PM
It's been over two years since our initial response to Google's Manifest V3 proposal. Manifest V3 is the latest set of changes to the Chrome browser’s rules for browser extensions. Each extensions manifest version update introduces backwards-incompatible changes to ostensibly move the platform forward. In 2018, Manifest V3 was framed as a proposal, with Google repeatedly claiming to be listening to feedback. Let's check in to see where we stand as 2021 wraps up.
Since announcing Manifest V3 i...
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Podcast Episode: A Better Future Starts with Secret Codes
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/podcast-episode-better-future-starts-secret-codes
December 14, 2021, 9:00 AM
Podcast Episode 105
Law enforcement wants to force companies to build a backdoor to the software that runs on your phones, tablets, and other devices. This would allow easier access to the information on your device and the information that flows through it, including your private communications with others, the websites you visit, and all the information from your applications. Join EFF’s Cindy Cohn and Danny O’Brien as they talk to Riana Pfefferkorn, a lawyer and research scholar at the St...
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Digital Services Act: EU Parliament's Key Committee Rejects a Filternet But Concerns Remain
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/digital-services-act-eu-parliaments-key-committee-avoids-filternet-made-europe
December 14, 2021, 8:00 AM
Fix What is Broken vs Break What Works: Oscillating Between Policy Choices
The European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) is a big deal. It's the most significant reform of Europe’s internet platform legislation in twenty years and the EU Commission has proposed multiple new rules to address the challenges brought by the increased use of services online. While the draft proposal got many things right -- for example by setting standards on transparency, proposing limits on content removal, and...
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Dream Job Alert: Senior Fellow for Decentralization at EFF
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/dream-job-alert-senior-fellow-decentralization-eff
December 13, 2021, 10:20 PM
We have an amazing opportunity to join the EFF team.
We are hiring a Senior Fellow of Decentralization, a position that is a public advocate helping to establish EFF as a leader in the civil liberties implications of decentralizing the Internet. You’ll help chart a course for EFF to have real impact in the public conversations about decentralization of the Internet as it fits into our mission of ensuring that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people of the world. Thr...
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EFF to Federal Appeals Courts: Hold Police Accountable for Violating Civilians’ Right to Record
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/eff-federal-appeals-courts-hold-police-accountable-violating-civilians-right-0
December 13, 2021, 6:36 PM
You have the right under the First Amendment to livestream and record on-duty police officers and officers who interfere with that right should be held accountable. That’s what EFF told the Fourth and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals in amicus briefs filed in November. EFF is supporting the plaintiffs in those cases, Sharpe v. Winterville and Irizarry v. Yehia, who are suing police officers for violating their right to record.
After police officers beat Dijon Sharpe during a traffic stop, he de...
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This Is Not the Privacy Bill You’re Looking For
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/not-privacy-bill-youre-looking
December 13, 2021, 5:58 PM
Lawmakers looking for a starting place on privacy legislation should pass on The Uniform Law Commission’s Uniform Personal Data Protection Act (UPDPA). The Uniform Law Commission (ULC) seeks to write model legislation that can be adopted in state legislatures across the country to set national standards. Sadly, the ULC has fumbled its consumer privacy bill and created, in the UPDPA, a model bill that is weak, confusing, and toothless.
A strong privacy bill must place consumers first. EFF has l...
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مؤسسة الجبهة الإلكترونية نيابة عن ناشطة حقوقية سعودية، تقاضي صانع برامج التجسس دارك ماتر لانتهاك قوانين مكافحة القرصنة الأمريكية والقوانين الدولية لحقوق الإنسان
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/mwss-ljbh-llktrwny-nyb-n-nsht-hqwqy-swdy-tqdy-sn-brmj-ltjss-drk-mtr-lnthk-qwnyn-mkfh
December 10, 2021, 4:02 AM
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