Podcast Episode: Data Doppelgängers
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/podcast-episode-data-doppelgangers
January 25, 2022, 9:00 AM
Podcast Episode 109
As humans, we’re constantly changing and evolving, always trying to become our best selves. But the internet will never forget about us at our lowest. One simple search or purchase online can cause the internet, specifically advertisements, to haunt you with products forever, no matter how much you change.
On this episode of How to Fix the Internet, Ethan Zuckerman, a long-time friend and tech pioneer, joins EFF’s Cindy Cohn and Danny O’Brien to discuss ways to fix surv...
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The U.K. Paid $724,000 For A Creepy Campaign To Convince People That Encryption is Bad. It Won’t Work.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/uk-paid-724000-creepy-campaign-convince-people-encryption-bad-it-wont-work
January 22, 2022, 12:08 AM
This week, the U.K. government launched an unprecedented and deceptive effort to kill off end-to-end encryption. They’ve hired a fancy ad agency to convince people that encrypted messages are dangerous to children.
The explicit goal of the “No Place to Hide” campaign, launched on Tuesday, is to prevent Facebook from expanding its use of end-to-end encryption. Currently, Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging system uses end-to-end encryption, but other communications systems, including Facebook M...
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Digital Rights Updates with EFFector 34.1
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/digital-rights-updates-effector-341
January 21, 2022, 6:28 PM
Start the new year right by keeping up with the latest news on your digital rights! Version 34, issue 1 of our EFFector newsletter is out now. Catch up on the latest EFF news, from our celebration of Copyright Week to Google releasing a "disable 2g" feature for new Android smartphones, by reading our newsletter or listening to the new audio version below. 
LISTEN ON YoutubE
EFFECTOR 34.01 - Ten years after the "Internet Blackout"
Make sure you never miss an issue by signing up by email to re...
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EFF Sues the U.S. State Department over Documents Related to Activist Leila Khaled
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/eff-sues-us-state-department-over-documents-related-activist-leila-khaled
January 20, 2022, 5:51 PM
Over the last few years, technology platforms have repeatedly censored online expression by Palestinians and their allies. In one example of this, technology companies have refused to host speech by Palestinian activist Leila Khaled. Khaled is associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group on the State Department’s list of designated terrorist organizations. Since 2020, Zoom, Facebook, YouTube, and Eventbrite have all censored academic events hosted by colleges an...
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DSA: EU Parliament Vote Ensures a Free Internet, But a Final Regulation Must Add Stronger Privacy Protections
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/dsa-eu-parliaments-position-ensures-free-internet-human-rights-safeguards-need-be
January 20, 2022, 2:09 PM
The European Parliament had an important decision to make this week about the Digital Services Act (DSA). After months of considering amendments, members oscillated between several policy options on how to regulate online platforms, including the dystopian idea of mandating dominant platforms act as internet police, monitoring content on behalf of governments and collecting user information to keep the internet "safe."
European Parliament Got Many Things Right...
In today's vote, the EU Parliame...
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In the Internet Age, Copyright Law Does Far More Than Antitrust to Shape Competition
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/internet-age-copyright-law-does-far-more-antitrust-shape-competition
January 19, 2022, 9:44 PM
We're taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, addressing what's at stake and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation.
There has been a notable, and long overdue flurry, of antitrust actions targeting Big Tech, launched by users, entrepreneurs, and governments alike. And ...
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Fact-Checking, COVID-19 Misinformation, and the British Medical Journal
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/fact-checking-covid-19-misinformation-and-british-medical-journal
January 19, 2022, 5:58 PM
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, authoritative research and publications have been critical in gaining better knowledge of the virus and how to combat it. However, unlike previous pandemics, this one has been further exacerbated by a massive wave of misinformation and disinformation spreading across traditional and online social media.
The increasing volume of misinformation and urgent calls for better moderation have made processes like fact-checking—the practice that aims to assess the accu...
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Copyright Shouldn’t Stand in the Way of Your Right to Repair
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/copyright-shouldnt-stand-way-your-right-repair
January 18, 2022, 9:11 PM
We're taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, addressing what's at stake and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation.
If you bought it, you own it and you can do what you want with it. That should be the end of the story—whether we’re talking about a car, a tractor, ...
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Podcast Episode: How Private is Your Bank Account?
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/who-peering-your-bank-account
January 18, 2022, 9:41 AM
Podcast Episode 108
Your friends, your medical concerns, your political ideology— financial transactions tell the story of your life in intimate details. But U.S. law has failed to protect  this sensitive data from prying eyes.  Join EFF’s Cindy Cohn and Danny O’Brien as they talk to Marta Belcher, one of the leading lawyers working on issues of financial censorship and financial privacy, as they help you understand why we need better protections for our financial lives—and the importa...
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Welcome to the Public Domain, Winnie-the-Pooh
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/welcome-public-domain-winnie-pooh
January 17, 2022, 5:26 PM
We're taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, addressing what's at stake and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation.
In 2019, for the first time in 20 years, U.S. copyright law allowed formerly copyrighted works to join the public domain. Works in the public domain are ...
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It’s Copyright Week 2022: Ten Years Later, How Has SOPA/PIPA Shaped Online Copyright Enforcement?
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/its-copyright-week-2022-ten-years-later-how-has-sopapipa-shaped-online-copyright
January 17, 2022, 5:20 PM
We're taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, addressing what's at stake and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation.
Ten years ago, a diverse coalition of internet users, non-profit groups, and internet companies defeated the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTEC...
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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
Update: This feature is only available on certain phones running Android 12. So far we have only confirmed it is available on the Pixel 6.
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 m...
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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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