You Should Not Trust Russia’s New “Trusted Root CA”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/you-should-not-trust-russias-new-trusted-root-ca
March 15, 2022, 11:41 PM
Last week, Russian citizens began receiving instructions to either download a government-approved web browser, or change their basic browser settings, according to instructions issued by their government’s Ministry of Digital Development and Communications.
On the one hand, these changes may be necessary for Russians to access government services and websites impacted by international sanctions. Nonetheless, it is a worrying development: the Russian state’s stopgap measure to keep its servi...
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Podcast Episode: Watching the Watchers
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/podcast-episode-watching-watchers
March 15, 2022, 10:00 AM
Imagine being detained by armed agents whenever you returned from traveling outside the country. That’s what life became like for Academy Award-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras, who was placed on a terrorist watch-list after she made a documentary critical of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. Poitras was detained close to 100 times between 2006 and 2012, and border agents routinely copied her notebooks and threatened to take her electronics. 
It was only after Poitras teamed up with EF...
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EFF Asks Federal Appellate Court to Re-hear Important Patent Transparency Case
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/eff-asks-federal-appellate-court-re-hear-important-patent-transparency-case
March 14, 2022, 6:35 PM
After pushing for more than three years to access court records in a lawsuit brought by a notorious patent troll, Uniloc, against Apple, EFF is challenging a federal appellate court’s decision that imperils the public’s ability to understand what happens in patent litigation.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overruled the district court’s decision to grant public access to records documenting the legal fight last month. The court ruled that the public had no interest in ac...
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The Foilies 2022
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/foilies-2022
March 13, 2022, 4:41 PM
Recognizing the year's worst in government transparency.
The Foilies were compiled by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (Director of Investigations Dave Maass, Senior Staff Attorney Aaron Mackey, Frank Stanton Fellow Mukund Rathi, Investigative Researcher Beryl Lipton, Policy Analyst Matthew Guariglia) and MuckRock (Co-Founder Michael Morisy, Senior Reporting Fellows Betsy Ladyzhets and Dillon Bergin, and Investigations Editor Derek Kravitz), with further review and editing by Shawn Musgrave. I...
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Big Tech Pay-Outs to European ISPs Would Just Concentrate Their Power
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/big-tech-pay-outs-european-isps-would-just-concentrate-their-power
March 10, 2022, 11:36 PM
As the debate about how to rein in Big Tech and its anti-competitive practices continues, news publishers and telecommunications providers are increasingly calling for large pay-outs from major platforms. However, these proposals risk restricting users into ever-smaller walled gardens and cementing the dominance of a few big players.
On Valentine’s day, an open letter from the CEOs of Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica, Vodafone, and Orange surfaced. In the letter, the heads of Europe’s biggest t...
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Federal Court in Virginia Holds Geofence Warrant Violates Constitution
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/federal-court-virginia-holds-geofence-warrant-violates-constitution
March 10, 2022, 10:32 PM
In the first order of its kind, a federal district court has held that a warrant used to identify all devices in the area of a bank robbery, including the defendant’s, “plainly violates the rights enshrined in [the Fourth] Amendment.” The court questioned whether similar warrants could ever be constitutional.
The case is United States v. Chatrie, and addresses a controversial tool called a geofence warrant. The police issued the warrant to Google seeking information on every device within ...
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Utah: Urge Governor Cox to Veto This Weak Data Privacy Bill
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/utah-urge-governor-cox-veto-weak-data-privacy-bill
March 10, 2022, 8:48 PM
EFF fights for strong data privacy laws in statehouses across the country. That’s why we joined a coalition of privacy advocates in urging Utah's lawmakers to stop the bill. Now we're asking Gov. Spencer J. Cox to veto SB227, which passed quickly through the state’s legislature last week. This bill protects privacy in name only, and lacks real protections or teeth. By setting such a low bar for privacy, and blessing some anti-privacy company tactics, it does not set a strong foundation for f...
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Here’s How ICE Illegally Obtained Bulk Financial Records from Western Union
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/heres-how-ice-illegally-obtained-bulk-financial-records-western-union
March 10, 2022, 7:29 PM
Senator Ron Wyden has released a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Inspector General voicing his concern over a previously-unknown bulk data collection program that was carried out by Homeland Security Investigations(HSI), a unit within DHS’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). For more than two  years, HSI used administrative subpoenas to acquire millions of financial records from two companies involved in money transfers, Western Union and Maxitransfer...
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How the NTIA Can Fund Future-Proof Open Access Fiber
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/how-ntia-can-fund-future-proof-open-access-fiber
March 10, 2022, 6:09 PM
EFF Legal Intern Emma Hagemann contributed to the corresponding comment.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has big decisions to make in its effort to implement the new federal broadband infrastructure program. If done right, and with the right state policies in place, a great number of Americans will obtain access to multi-gigabit broadband in the coming years.
EFF sent comments to the NTIA urging them to fund the deployment of open access fiber networks, p...
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Using Your Phone in Times of Crisis
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/using-your-phone-times-crisis
March 9, 2022, 10:35 PM
Secure communications are especially important in times of crisis. Just being aware of surveillance has chilling effects in how we exercise speech, which is often under attack by all sorts of actors from criminals to our own governments. With war in Ukraine and political crackdowns in Russia, it is critical for Russians and Ukrainians alike to let their loved ones know they're ok, to stay informed, and to organize.
It is not surprising that in times of crisis many people default to the most wide...
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EFF to European Court: “Right to be Forgotten” Shouldn’t Stop The Public From Reading The News
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/right-be-forgotten-must-be-balanced-publics-interest-online-media-archives
March 7, 2022, 5:23 PM
The “right to be forgotten," which exists in European Union member states and allows for mandatory delisting of results from search engines, must be balanced against the rights of the public to read media archives. EFF joined together with more than a dozen other media and free expression groups to make that point clear in a recent case from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
In Hurbain v. Belgium, the applicant, the editor-in-chief of Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir, argued that his ...
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Telegram Harm Reduction for Users in Russia and Ukraine
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/telegram-harm-reduction-users-russia-and-ukraine
March 4, 2022, 7:09 PM
Update March 8, 2022: EFF has clarified that Channels and Groups are not fully encrypted, end-to-end, updated our post to link to Telegram’s FAQ for Cloud and Secret chats, updated to clarify that auto-delete is available for group and channel admins, and added some additional links.
Russians and Ukrainians are both prolific users of Telegram. They rely on the app for channels that act as newsfeeds, group chats (both public and private), and one-to-one communication. Since the Russian invasion...
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Negotiations Over UN Cybercrime Treaty Under Way in New York, With EFF and Partners Urging Focus on Human Rights
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/negotiations-over-international-police-powers-agreement-must-keep-human-rights
March 3, 2022, 11:16 PM
While tensions run high across the globe over the invasion of Ukraine, the world’s governments are meeting at the UN this week and next to find common ground on a proposed treaty to facilitate international cooperation and coordination in computer crime investigations. The treaty, if approved, may reshape criminal laws and bolster cross-border police surveillance powers to access and share user data, implicating the privacy and human rights of billions of people worldwide. Earlier this week, E...
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Wartime Is a Bad Time To Mess With the Internet
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/wartime-bad-time-mess-internet
March 3, 2022, 9:44 PM
Like most people, we at EFF are horrified by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Also like most people, we are not experts on military strategy or international diplomacy. But we do have some expertise with the internet and civil liberties, which is why we are deeply concerned that governments around the world are pressuring internet companies to interfere with fundamental internet infrastructure. Tinkering with the internet as part of a political or military response is likely to backfire in multip...
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The Campaign to Shut Down Crucial Documentary Tool youtube-dl Continues – And So Does the Fight to Save It
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/campaign-shut-down-crucial-documentary-tool-youtube-dl-continues-and-so-does-fight
March 3, 2022, 7:34 PM
Copyright maximalists just don’t know when to stop. Having failed in their 2020 attempt to use U.S. law to force GitHub to permanently cut off access to youtube-dl, an open source tool that allows users to download and preserve videos, on the theory that the tool can also be used for infringing purposes, the music publishers have turned to the German courts instead. But one small German hosting provider, represented by the German Society for Civil Rights (GFF), is fighting back.
The saga start...
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Cybersecurity Experts Urge EU Lawmakers to Fix Website Authentication Proposal That Puts Internet Users’ Security and Privacy at Risk
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/cybersecurity-experts-urge-eu-lawmakers-fix-website-authentication-proposal-puts
March 3, 2022, 8:42 AM
Proposed Amendment Will Expose Users to CyberattacksSAN FRANCISCO—Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) technologists, along with 36 of the world’s top cybersecurity experts, today urged European lawmakers to reject proposed changes to European Union (EU) regulations for securing electronic payments and other online transactions that will dramatically weaken web security and expose internet users to increased risk of attacks by cybercriminals.The ill-conceived proposed amendment to Article 45...
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Victory! San Francisco Mayor Withdraws Harmful Measure Against Surveillance Oversight Law
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/victory-san-francisco-mayor-withdraws-harmful-measure-against-surveillance
March 2, 2022, 6:32 AM
San Francisco Mayor London Breed has pulled a harmful ballot initiative that threatened to gut the city’s landmark 2019 surveillance oversight ordinance. This withdrawal followed intense community pressure, including a coalition letter signed by over 30 San Francisco community and civil rights organizations, including EFF and Electronic Frontier Alliance members Black Movement Law Project and Oakland Privacy.
The mayor and the San Francisco Police Department recently used public fears of crime...
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EFF Urges FTC to Investigate Stalkerware App Network Subject of TechCrunch Report
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/eff-urges-ftc-investigate-stalkerware-app-network-subject-techcrunch-report
February 26, 2022, 12:34 AM
Private messages, voicemails, internet browsing, passwords and location data—this is the type of private phone data that is being monitored in real time, unbeknownst to hundreds of thousands of people around the world being tracked by consumer-grade spyware.
There is a massive network of stalkerware apps that is harvesting the private data of at least 400,000 people through consumer-grade spyware apps that share a major security flaw, according to TechCrunch security editor Zack Whittaker’s ...
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Copyright is Not a Shortcut Around the Constitution’s Anonymous Speech Protections, EFF Tells Court
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/copyright-not-shortcut-around-constitutions-anonymous-speech-protections-eff-tells
February 18, 2022, 11:54 PM
Anonymous speech is an important protection for those concerned about political or economic retribution, harassment, or even threats to their lives. The shield that protects those speakers’ anonymity in U.S. court is the First Amendment, and applying the appropriate constitutional test during litigation allows a court to appropriately balance the necessity of unmasking a litigant with the harm of exposing them.
Unfortunately, courts do not always apply the correct tests to protect anonymous s...
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Twitter and Facebook Must Speak Out Against Ghana's Repulsive Anti-LGBTQI+ Bill
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/twitter-and-facebook-must-speak-out-against-ghanas-repulsive-anti-lgbtqi-bill
February 17, 2022, 11:39 PM
As the Ghanaian Parliament considers a bill that would criminalize being LGBTQI+ or an ally of LGBTQI+ people, and ban all speech on and offline that even remotely supports LGBTQI+ rights, Twitter and Facebook's parent company Meta must publicly speak out against the proposal and state what action they will take to protect users should the legislation pass.
Both Twitter and Facebook have invested heavily in Ghana, which holds itself out to be a constitutional democracy with a strong commitment ...
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EFF to Court: Security Research Is a Fair Use
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/eff-court-security-research-fair-use
February 17, 2022, 7:03 PM
We live in a world increasingly governed by technology. Too often, that technology includes security vulnerabilities that could allow malicious actors access to our most important and private information. That’s why it’s so important that security researchers be allowed to do their work without fear that they might infringe copyright in the software they are testing. Thanks to the doctrine of fair use, which creates a “safety valve” for research, commentary and so on, they usually don’...
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Privacy Experts to Federal and State Agencies: End Use of Facial Verification Services
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/privacy-experts-federal-and-state-agencies-end-use-facial-verification-services
February 17, 2022, 12:21 AM
In a victory for privacy and security, the Internal Revenue Service reversed course from its recent announcement that it was partnering with ID.me, a third-party identity verification service, to use facial recognition for verification of users managing many aspects of their taxes online.
Importantly, this change only happened after a maelstrom of criticism from lawmakers and privacy advocates.
Congress Demands Agencies Rethink Use of Facial Recognition
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden...
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Not Just San Francisco: Police Across the Country are Retaining and Searching DNA of Victims and Innocent People
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/not-just-san-francisco-police-across-country-are-retaining-and-searching-dna
February 16, 2022, 9:46 PM
This week we learned that San Francisco Police used a woman’s own DNA—collected years earlier as part of an investigation into her sexual assault—to charge her for an unrelated property crime. What’s worse—it appears the S.F. police routinely search victims’ DNA in criminal investigations.
This practice is possible because San Francisco has been storing DNA gathered from rape survivors in the same local database where it stores DNA from rape assailants and other suspects. The San Fra...
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The Worst Timeline: A Printer Company Is Putting DRM in Paper Now
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/worst-timeline-printer-company-putting-drm-paper-now
February 15, 2022, 11:18 PM
Update 2/16/22: This article first appeared with a typo as well as a computation error that listed the manufacturing cost of printer ink at $250/oz; the correct figure is $170/gal. We regret the error and thank the eagle-eyed readers who spotted it and pointed it out on Twitter. Your service is appreciated and we salute you.
Are you well organized? Do you have a garage full of well-labeled bins or a pantry full of neatly labeled jars? Do you ship a lot of stuff and print labels? If so, you prob...
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Maryland Bill Offers Strong Privacy Protections Against Biometric Data Collection
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/maryland-steps-strong-biometric-privacy-bill
February 15, 2022, 10:49 PM
It is critically important that lawmakers stand up to protect their constituents from the abuse of biometric information, through strong laws with strong enforcement. That’s why we were proud to testify in support last week of Maryland’s SB 335, which would give Marylanders much-needed protections against unwanted biometric data collection. Most importantly, this bill requires corporations to get a person’s opt-in consent before collecting their biometrics, and it empowers people to sue th...
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UN Committee To Begin Negotiating New Cybercrime Treaty Amid Disagreement Among States Over Its Scope
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/un-committee-begin-negotiating-new-cybercrime-treaty-amid-disagreement-among
February 15, 2022, 8:05 PM
As a UN-convened committee of government experts from around the world gets ready to begin negotiations to draft a Cybercrime Treaty,  there's a pronounced lack of consensus among UN member states about what constitutes a "cybercrime" and how expansive the treaty will be. After years of discussion, the UN General Assembly voted to begin negotiating a Cybercrime Treaty that has potential to reshape policing on a global scale, with serious implications for human rights. UN Resolution 74/247 creat...
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Victory! More Lawsuits Proceed Against Clearview’s Face Surveillance
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/victory-another-lawsuit-proceeds-against-clearviews-face-surveillance
February 15, 2022, 7:58 PM
Face surveillance is a growing menace to racial justice, privacy, free speech, and information security. So EFF supports bans on government use of this dangerous technology, and laws requiring corporations to get opt-in consent from a person before taking their faceprint.
One of the worst offenders is Clearview AI, which extracts faceprints from billions of people without their consent and uses these faceprints to help police identify suspects. For example, police in Miami worked with Clearview ...
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What Spotify, Neil Young, and Joe Rogan Tell Us About Content Moderation
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/what-spotify-neil-young-and-joe-rogan-tell-us-about-content-moderation
February 15, 2022, 5:09 PM
Content moderation is complex, difficult and, frankly, exhausting. The most recent example involves Spotify and its decision to stick with the controversial podcast host, Joe Rogan, over other creators. There is no question that Spotify has the right to determine whom to host, profit from or reject from its platform; what is worrisome, however, is Spotify abdicating its ethical responsibility to its users to make such decisions in a transparent and consistent way. 
Let’s start from the beginn...
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The Federal Circuit Helps a Patent Troll Block Public Access to Court Records
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/federal-circuit-helps-patent-troll-block-public-access-court-records
February 14, 2022, 6:17 PM
For more than three years, EFF has been fighting for public access to court records in a patent case between Uniloc, one of the world’s most prolific patent trolls, and Apple, one of the world’s biggest tech companies. The district court has ruled three different times that the public has a strong presumption of access to these records and has ordered Uniloc, the party asking for secrecy, to make them public.
Last week, however, the Federal Circuit further delayed public access to the court ...
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EFF, ACLU, and 30+ Community Groups Oppose Weakening San Francisco’s Surveillance Ordinance
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/eff-aclu-and-30-community-groups-oppose-weakening-san-franciscos-surveillance
February 11, 2022, 10:50 PM
EFF, ACLU, and 34 other community and  civil rights groups have signed onto a letter urging San Francisco’s Mayor and the Board of Supervisors not to gut the city’s landmark 2019 surveillance technology ordinance.
Mayor London Breed recently introduced a proposed ballot initiative that would create massive exceptions to the law’s requirement that police get permission from democratically elected Supervisors before using or acquiring any new surveillance technology.
The letter is signed ...
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We Need Answers About the CIA’s Mass Surveillance
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/we-need-answers-about-cias-mass-surveillance
February 11, 2022, 7:14 PM
The Central Intelligence Agency has been collecting American’s private data without any oversight or even the minimal legal safeguards that apply to the NSA and FBI, an unconstitutional affront to our civil liberties.
According to a declassified report released yesterday by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), the CIA’s surveillance program is reminiscent of the mass surveillance programs conducted by the NSA, though the details released thus far paint a disturbing pictu...
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Key Senators Have Voted For The Anti-Encryption EARN IT Act
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/key-senators-have-voted-anti-encryption-earn-it-act
February 10, 2022, 9:49 PM
Earlier today, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance the dangerous EARN IT bill. We’re disappointed to see the committee advance this misguided bill. If enacted, EARN IT will put massive legal pressure on internet companies both large and small to stop using encryption and instead scan all user messages, photos, and files. 
The bill could now be voted on by the full Senate at any time, or worse, included as part of a different “must-pass” legislative package. We need you to cont...
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EFF Sends Letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee to Oppose EARN IT
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/eff-sends-letter-senate-judiciary-committee-oppose-earn-it
February 10, 2022, 4:27 AM
On Wednesday, February 9, EFF sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee to strongly oppose S. 3538, the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act of 2022 (EARN IT Act).
EFF opposed the original and amended versions of this bill in the previous Congress, and our letter outlines our concerns with the reintroduced version of the bill that the sponsors have not addressed.
Given its significant problems and potential vast impact on internet users, we urged the Com...
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Robots Have No Place Filtering Creative Content, EFF Tells U.S. Copyright Office
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/robots-have-no-place-filtering-creative-content-eff-tells-us-copyright-office
February 9, 2022, 11:28 PM
Software robots should not be deciding whether your creative content, whether written words, videos, photos, or music, ought to be pulled off the internet.That’s what we told the U.S. Copyright office in comments we filed February 8 arguing against requiring service providers to embrace “standard technical measures” to address copyright infringement. While some technologies can be useful to flag potential infringement, technical measures such as automated filters are dangerous because they...
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Activists, Writers, and Security Experts All Oppose the EARN IT Act
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/activists-writers-and-security-experts-all-oppose-earn-it-act
February 9, 2022, 7:26 PM
Along with 60 other human rights, civil rights and open Internet organizations, EFF sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, February 9 outlining our concerns with the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act of 2022 (EARN IT, S.3538).
As we wrote when the bill was introduced, this bill threatens encryption and free speech, while making it harder to protect children from online abuse. That’s why such a broad coalition of civil society groups...
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Victory! ID.me to Drop Facial Recognition Requirement for Government Services
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/victory-irs-wont-require-facial-recognition-idme
February 9, 2022, 6:02 PM
First, the Internal Revenue Service reversed course from its recent announcement that it was partnering with ID.me, a third-party identity verification service, to use facial recognition for verification of users managing many aspects of their taxes online. Now, ID.me—which provides identity verification services for dozens of government agencies—says it will drop its facial recognition requirement entirely for these agencies, in a victory for privacy and security. 
This is an important win...
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What the Duck? Why an EU Proposal to Require "QWACs" Will Hurt Internet Security
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/what-duck-why-eu-proposal-require-qwacs-will-hurt-internet-security
February 9, 2022, 12:00 PM
It's become easier over the years for websites to improve their security, thanks to tools that allow more people to automate and easily set-up secure measures for web applications and the services they provide. A proposed amendment to Article 45 in the EU’s Digital Identity Framework (eIDAS) would roll back these gains by requiring outdated ideas for security and authentication of websites. The amendment states that “web-browsers shall ensure that the identity data provided using any of the ...
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EFF Joins Activists And Human Rights Groups To Reject Attacks on Encryption
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/eff-joins-activists-and-human-rights-groups-reject-attacks-encryption
February 9, 2022, 5:17 AM
Encryption is under attack. In liberal democracies, elected leaders are giving lip service to our right to privacy—while seeking to create a system where they can scan any data we send over the internet. 
Earlier this month, the U.K. Home Office spent public money on a high-priced ad campaign that bad-mouthed encryption, portraying it as a tool used by criminals. In the U.S., a Senate committee is about to vote on the dangerous “EARN IT” Act, which could lead to widespread scanning of pri...
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Send Surveillance Robot Dogs to the Pound, Not the Border
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/send-surveillance-robot-dogs-pound-not-border
February 8, 2022, 9:34 PM
On February 1, 2022, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, the official research and development arm of the agency, released a cutesy press release about how robotic dogs made in collaboration with Ghost Robotics are “one step closer” to deployment on the U.S.-Mexico border. Covered with sensors and cameras that can relay information and footage in real time to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), these machines are less cute-video or selfie fodder ...
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If EARN IT Passes, What Happens On Your iPhone Won't Stay On Your iPhone
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/if-earn-it-passes-what-happens-your-iphone-wont-stay-your-iphone
February 8, 2022, 8:21 PM
Last year, Apple announced a controversial plan to install photo scanning software in every device. Apple has long been seen as a pro-privacy company—billboards emblazoned with the slogan “What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone” were common sights in 2019. A global coalition pushed back, and the company paused the plan. 
Now, Congress wants to force Apple’s hand—along with essentially every company that allows users to store or share messages or content—and essentially ma...
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Ohio: Don’t Give Big Tech a Pass On Privacy
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/ohio-dont-give-big-tech-pass-privacy
February 8, 2022, 7:44 PM
Ohio lawmakers are giving big tech companies a gift in the form of the Ohio Personal Privacy Act. This law purports to strike a balance between consumer protection and company demands. Instead, it stacks the deck even further against individuals who want to protect their privacy.
The OPPA would enshrine privacy violating practices from Big Tech and other companies, and place the responsibility for managing privacy entirely on individuals—without actually improving protections for the people of...
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EFF to Appeals: Apple’s Monopoly Doesn’t Make Users Safer
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/eff-appeals-apples-monopoly-doesnt-make-users-safer
February 4, 2022, 11:19 PM
When users fork over money for an iPhone (average price: over $800), many expect to be able to play their favorite mobile game on it. They expect the apps they buy to work. Many users also expect to install apps that enhance their security and privacy beyond what Apple provides.
Users may not know or understand that Apple’s rules for the App Store can get in the way, by driving up app costs and limiting availability. Apple uses layers of digital locks to channel all app purchases and downloads...
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Senate Commerce Committee is Letting Big Telecom Hamstring the FCC
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/senate-commerce-committee-letting-industry-hamstring-fcc
February 4, 2022, 9:37 PM
Six months have passed since the Biden Administration signed an Executive Order to restore Net Neutrality at the FCC. And three months have passed since the President nominated net neutrality champion Gigi Sohn, a member of the EFF board, to the FCC. (Sohn will leave the EFF board if she is confirmed.) Yet Sohn’s nomination is still stuck at the Senate Commerce Committee over apparent reluctance from the committee leadership, including its chair Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) and ranki...
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SHOP SAFE Will Stomp Out Online Sales of Used and Homemade Goods
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/shop-safe-will-stomp-out-online-sales-used-and-homemade-goods
February 3, 2022, 9:21 PM
The House of Representatives has inserted SHOP SAFE—a piece of legislation that would make it extremely difficult for any individual to sell things online and equally difficult for any online platform to compete with Amazon—into a 3,000-page trade bill. It cannot remain there.
The “Stopping Harmful Offers on Platforms by Screening Against Fakes in E-Commerce” (SHOP SAFE) is a bill that claims to be about protecting consumers but is more likely to enrich big brands at consumers’ expense...
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San Francisco Should Strengthen, Not Gut, Surveillance Ordinance
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/san-francisco-should-strengthen-not-gut-surveillance-technology-ordinance
February 3, 2022, 9:14 PM
San Francisco is considering whether to strengthen or roll back civil rights protections against government surveillance. Nearly three years ago, EFF joined a coalition of community groups to support the city’s passage of the Surveillance Technology Ordinance, which bans government use of facial recognition technology and empowers the Board of Supervisors, with public input, to decide whether or not city agencies may acquire and use other surveillance tech.
A year later, the San Francisco Pol...
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It’s Back: Senators Want EARN IT Bill to Scan All Online Messages
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/its-back-senators-want-earn-it-bill-scan-all-online-messages
February 3, 2022, 6:54 PM
People don’t want outsiders reading their private messages —not their physical mail, not their texts, not their DMs, nothing. It’s a clear and obvious point, but one place it doesn’t seem to have reached is the U.S. Senate.
A group of lawmakers led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have re-introduced the EARN IT Act, an incredibly unpopular bill from 2020 that was dropped in the face of overwhelming opposition. Let’s be clear: the new EARN IT Act would pa...
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Tell the Copyright Office Who Is Really Affected by Filters
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/tell-copyright-office-who-really-affected-filters
February 3, 2022, 1:49 AM
Right now, the U.S. Copyright Office is collecting information on the use of "standard technical measures" to address copyright infringement, as part of a longer effort that, we fear, will lead to filtering mandates.
The Copyright Office is also holding a plenary session on February 22, to hear from the public. It will then engage in a  series of  “industry-sector specific consultations.” Given how often “industry” is seen as equivalent to Big Tech and Big Content, it is vital that the...
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Podcast Episode: Saving Podcasts from a Patent Troll
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/podcast-episode-saving-podcasts-patent-troll
February 1, 2022, 9:21 AM
Podcast Episode 110
Imagine getting a letter in the mail—and then another, and then another—telling you that if you don’t pay $25,000 to a company you’ve never heard of, you’ll have to shut down the small business that you’ve worked for years to build.
That’s exactly the situation faced by a group of podcasters several years ago, including comedian Marc Maron, who hosts the WTF podcast. They were being threatened by a patent troll called Personal Audio, which claimed that podcaster...
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California Prevails on Net Neutrality Rules
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/california-prevails-net-neutrality-and-states-can-go-forth
January 28, 2022, 10:58 PM
This post has been updated slightly to take note of future legal proceedings.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected an attempt to bar enforcement of California's gold standard state net neutrality law. Major ISPs had insisted that only the Federal Communications Commission could define and enforce net neutrality protections, so when the FCC decided to eviscerate those protections in 2018, the rest of the nation simply had to live with the consequences. The Ninth Circuit held otherwise,...
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New Tracking Global Online Censorship Site Explains Content Moderation Practices and Impacts
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/01/new-tracking-global-online-censorship-site-explains-content-moderation-practices
January 28, 2022, 12:14 AM
Content moderation has become a critical topic across the globe. Unfortunately, it can still be difficult for the average person to understand the processes that go into content moderation, much less how to appeal decisions that those platforms make to censor content or accounts. To help fill this gap, we’re launching a resource for the research and advocacy communities—as well as the public at large—to learn more about the policies and practices of commercial content moderation and the ph...
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