Decoding the California DMV's Mobile Driver's License
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/decoding-california-dmvs-mobile-drivers-license
March 19, 2024, 1:16 AM
The State of California is currently rolling out a “mobile driver’s license” (mDL), a form of digital identification that raises significant privacy and equity concerns. This post explains the new smartphone application, explores the risks, and calls on the state and its vendor to focus more on protection of the users. 
What is the California DMV Wallet? 
The California DMV Wallet app came out in app stores last year as a pilot, offering the ability to store and display your mDL on your ...
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EFF to California Appellate Court: Reject Trial Judge’s Ruling That Would Penalize Beneficial Features and Tools on Social Media
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/eff-california-appellate-court-reject-trial-judges-ruling-would-penalize
March 18, 2024, 11:22 PM
EFF legal intern Jack Beck contributed to this post.
A California trial court recently departed from wide-ranging precedent and held that Snap, Inc., the maker of Snapchat, the popular social media app, had created a “defective” product by including features like disappearing messages, the ability to connect with people through mutual friends, and even the well-known “Stories” feature. We filed an amicus brief in the appeal, Neville v. Snap, Inc., at the California Court of Appeal, and a...
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Lawmakers: Ban TikTok to Stop Election Misinformation! Same Lawmakers: Restrict How Government Addresses Election Misinformation!
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/lawmakers-ban-tiktok-stop-election-misinformation-same-lawmakers-restrict-how
March 16, 2024, 2:12 AM
In a case being heard Monday at the Supreme Court, 45 Washington lawmakers have argued that government communications with social media sites about possible election interference misinformation are illegal.Agencies can't even pass on information about websites state election officials have identified as disinformation, even if they don't request that any action be taken, they assert.Yet just this week the vast majority of those same lawmakers said the government's interest in removing election i...
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The SAFE Act to Reauthorize Section 702 is Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/safe-act-two-steps-forward-one-step-back
March 15, 2024, 8:48 PM
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is one of the most insidious and secretive mass surveillance authorities still in operation today. The Security and Freedom Enhancement (SAFE) Act would make some much-needed and long fought-for reforms, but it also does not go nearly far enough to rein in a surveillance law that the federal government has abused time and time again.
You can read the full text of the bill here.
While Section 702 was first sold as a tool necessary ...
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Thousands of Young People Told Us Why the Kids Online Safety Act Will Be Harmful to Minors
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/thousands-young-people-told-us-why-kids-online-safety-act-will-be-harmful-minors
March 15, 2024, 7:37 PM
With KOSA passed, the information i can access as a minor will be limited and censored, under the guise of "protecting me", which is the responsibility of my parents, NOT the government. I have learned so much about the world and about myself through social media, and without the diverse world i have seen, i would be a completely different, and much worse, person. For a country that prides itself in the free speech and freedom of its peoples, this bill goes against everything we stand for! - Ala...
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Analyzing KOSA’s Constitutional Problems In Depth 
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/analyzing-kosas-constitutional-problems-depth
March 15, 2024, 7:35 PM
Why EFF Does Not Think Recent Changes Ameliorate KOSA’s Censorship 
The latest version of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) did not change our critical view of the legislation. The changes have led some organizations to drop their opposition to the bill, but we still believe it is a dangerous and unconstitutional censorship bill that would empower state officials to target services and online content they do not like. We respect that different groups can come to their own conclusions about ho...
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San Diego City Council Breaks TRUST
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/san-diego-city-council-breaks-trust
March 15, 2024, 6:54 PM
In a stunning reversal against the popular Transparent & Responsible Use of Surveillance Technology (TRUST) ordinance, the San Diego city council voted earlier this year to cut many of the provisions that sought to ensure public transparency for law enforcement surveillance technologies. 
Similar to other Community Control Of Police Surveillance (CCOPS) ordinances, the TRUST ordinance was intended to ensure that each police surveillance technology would be subject to basic democratic over...
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5 Questions to Ask Before Backing the TikTok Ban
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/5-big-unanswered-questions-about-tiktok-bill
March 15, 2024, 6:30 PM
With strong bipartisan support, the U.S. House voted 352 to 65 to pass HR 7521 this week, a bill that would ban TikTok nationwide if its Chinese owner doesn’t sell the popular video app. The TikTok bill’s future in the U.S. Senate isn’t yet clear, but President Joe Biden has said he would sign it into law if it reaches his desk. 
The speed at which lawmakers have moved to advance a bill with such a significant impact on speech is alarming. It has given many of us — including, seemingly,...
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Location Data Tracks Abortion Clinic Visits. Here’s What to Know
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/location-data-tracks-abortion-clinic-visits-heres-what-know
March 15, 2024, 5:59 PM
Our concerns about the selling and misuse of location data for those seeking reproductive and gender healthcare are escalating amid a recent wave of cases and incidents demonstrating that the digital trail we leave is being used by anti-abortion activists.The good news is some states and tech companies are taking steps to better protect location data privacy, including information that endangers people needing or seeking information about reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare. But we know...
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How to Figure Out What Your Car Knows About You (and Opt Out of Sharing When You Can)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/how-figure-out-what-your-car-knows-about-you-and-opt-out-sharing-when-you-can
March 15, 2024, 4:56 PM
Cars collect a lot of our personal data, and car companies disclose a lot of that data to third parties. It’s often unclear what’s being collected, and what's being shared and with whom. A recent New York Times article highlighted how data is shared by G.M. with insurance companies, sometimes without clear knowledge from the driver. If you're curious about what your car knows about you, you might be able to find out. In some cases, you may even be able to opt out of some of that sharing of d...
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Making the Law Accessible in Europe and the USA
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/making-law-accessible-europe-and-usa
March 14, 2024, 9:46 PM
Special thanks to EFF legal intern Alissa Johnson, who was the lead author of this post.
Earlier this month, the European Union Court of Justice ruled that harmonized standards are a part of EU law, and thus must be accessible to EU citizens and residents free of charge.
While it might seem like common sense that the laws that govern us should be freely accessible, this question has been in dispute in the EU for the past five years, and in the U.S. for over a decade. At the center of this debat...
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Why U.S. House Members Opposed the TikTok Ban Bill
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/why-us-house-members-opposed-tiktok-ban-bill
March 14, 2024, 4:16 PM
What do House Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Barbara Lee have in common with House Republicans like Thomas Massie and Andy Biggs? Not a lot. But they do know an unconstitutional bill when they see one.These and others on both sides of the aisle were among the 65 House Members who voted "no" yesterday on the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” H.R. 7521, which would effectively ban TikTok. The bill now goes to the Senate, where we hope coole...
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SXSW Tried to Silence Critics with Bogus Trademark and Copyright Claims. EFF Fought Back.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/sxsw-tried-silence-critics-bogus-trademark-and-copyright-claims-eff-fought-back
March 13, 2024, 11:01 PM
Special thanks to EFF legal intern Jack Beck, who was the lead author of this post.
Amid heavy criticism for its ties to weapons manufacturers supplying Israel, South by Southwest—the organizer of an annual conference and music festival in Austin—has been on the defensive. One tool in their arsenal: bogus trademark and copyright claims against local advocacy group Austin for Palestine Coalition.
The Austin for Palestine Coalition has been a major source of momentum behind recent anti-SXSW p...
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Protect Yourself from Election Misinformation
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/protect-yourself-election-misinformation
March 13, 2024, 6:22 PM
Welcome to your U.S. presidential election year, when all kinds of bad actors will flood the internet with election-related disinformation and misinformation aimed at swaying or suppressing your vote in November. 
So… what’re you going to do about it? 
As EFF’s Corynne McSherry wrote in 2020, online election disinformation is a problem that has had real consequences in the U.S. and all over the world—it has been correlated to ethnic violence in Myanmar and India and to Kenya’s 2017 e...
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Congress Should Give Up on Unconstitutional TikTok Bans
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/congress-should-give-unconstitutional-tiktok-bans
March 13, 2024, 12:01 AM
Congress’ unfounded plan to ban TikTok under the guise of protecting our data is back, this time in the form of a new bill—the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” H.R. 7521 — which has gained a dangerous amount of momentum in Congress. This bipartisan legislation was introduced in the House just a week ago and is expected to be sent to the Senate after a vote later this week.
A year ago, supporters of digital rights across the country successfully...
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Congress Must Stop Pushing Bills That Will Benefit Patent Trolls
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/congress-must-stop-pushing-bills-will-benefit-patent-trolls
March 12, 2024, 10:27 PM
The U.S. Senate is moving forward with two bills that would enrich patent trolls, patent system insiders, and a few large companies that rely on flimsy patents, at the expense of everyone else. 
One bill, the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA) would bring back some of the worst software patents we’ve seen, and even re-introduce types of patents on human genes that were banned years ago. Meanwhile, a similar group of senators is trying to push forward the PREVAIL Act (S. 2220), which wo...
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Reject Nevada’s Attack on Encrypted Messaging, EFF Tells Court
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/reject-nevadas-attack-encrypted-messaging-eff-tells-court
March 12, 2024, 10:00 PM
Nevada Makes Backward Argument That Insecure Communication Makes Children SaferLAS VEGAS — The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a coalition of partners urged a court to protect default encrypted messaging and children’s privacy and security in a brief filed today.
The brief by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Nevada, the EFF, Stanford Internet Observatory Research Scholar Riana Pfefferkorn, and six other organizations asks the court to reject a request by Nevad...
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EFF Urges New York Court to Protect Online Speakers’ Anonymity
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/eff-urges-new-york-court-protect-online-speakers-anonymity
March 12, 2024, 8:54 PM
The First Amendment requires courts to apply a robust balancing test before unmasking anonymous online speakers, EFF explained in an amicus brief it filed recently in a New York State appeal.
In the case on appeal, GSB Gold Standard v. Google, a German company that sells cryptocurrency investments is seeking to unmask an anonymous blogger who criticized the company. Based upon a German court order, the company sought a subpoena that would identify the blogger. The blogger fought back, without su...
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Access to Internet Infrastructure is Essential, in Wartime and Peacetime
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/access-internet-infrastructure-essential-wartime-and-peacetime
March 12, 2024, 2:49 PM
We’ve been saying it for 20 years, and it remains true now more than ever: the internet is an essential service. It enables people to build and create communities, shed light on injustices, and acquire vital knowledge that might not otherwise be available. And access to it becomes even more imperative in circumstances where being able to communicate and share real-time information directly with the people you trust is instrumental to personal safety and survival. More specifically, during wart...
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Podcast Episode: 'I Squared' Governance
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/podcast-episode-i-squared-governance
March 12, 2024, 7:10 AM
Imagine a world in which the internet is first and foremost about empowering people, not big corporations and government. In that world, government does “after-action” analyses to make sure its tech regulations are working as intended, recruits experienced technologists as advisors, and enforces real accountability for intelligence and law enforcement programs.


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EFF to Ninth Circuit: There’s No Software Exception to Traditional Copyright Limits
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/eff-ninth-circuit-theres-no-software-exception-traditional-copyright-limits
March 11, 2024, 10:31 PM
Copyright’s reach is already far too broad, and courts have no business expanding it any further, particularly where that reframing will undermine adversarial interoperability. Unfortunately, a federal district court did just that in the latest iteration of Oracle v. Rimini, concluding that software Rimini developed was a “derivative work” because it was intended to interoperate with Oracle's software, even though the update didn’t use any of Oracle’s copyrightable code.That’s a dang...
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EFF’s Submission to Ofcom’s Consultation on Illegal Harms
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/effs-submission-ofcoms-consultation-illegal-harms
March 11, 2024, 5:31 PM
More than four years after it was first introduced, the Online Safety Act (OSA) was passed by the U.K. Parliament in September 2023. The Act seeks to make the U.K. “the safest place” in the world to be online and provides Ofcom, the country’s communications regulator, with the power to enforce this.EFF has opposed the Online Safety Act since it was first introduced. It will lead to a more censored, locked-down internet for British users. The Act empowers the U.K. government to undermine no...
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The Foilies 2024
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/foilies-2024
March 10, 2024, 2:42 PM
Recognizing the worst in government transparency.
The Foilies are co-written by EFF and MuckRock and published in alternative newspapers around the country through a partnership with the Association of Alternative Newsmedia. 
We're taught in school about checks and balances between the various branches of government, but those lessons tend to leave out the role that civilians play in holding officials accountable. We're not just talking about the ballot box, but the everyday power we all have t...
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Four Voices You Should Hear this International Women’s Day
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/four-voices-you-should-hear-international-womens-day
March 8, 2024, 10:15 PM
Around the globe, freedom of expression varies wildly in definition, scope, and level of access. The impact of the digital age on perceptions and censorship of speech has been felt across the political spectrum on a worldwide scale. In the debate over what counts as free expression and how it should work in practice, we often lose sight of how different forms of censorship can have a negative impact on different communities, and especially marginalized or vulnerable ones. This International Wome...
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Four Actions You Can Take To Protect Digital Rights this International Women’s Day
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/four-actions-you-can-take-protect-digital-rights-international-womens-day
March 8, 2024, 10:09 PM
This International Women’s Day, defend free speech, fight surveillance, and support innovation by calling on our elected politicians and private companies to uphold our most fundamental rights—both online and offline.
1. Pass the “My Body, My Data” Act
Privacy fears should never stand in the way of healthcare. That's why this common-sense federal bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs, will require businesses and non-governmental organizations to act responsibly with personal informat...
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Four Infosec Tools for Resistance this International Women’s Day 
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/four-infosec-tools-resistance-international-womens-day
March 8, 2024, 10:03 PM
While online violence is alarmingly common globally, women are often more likely to be the target of mass online attacks, nonconsensual leaks of sensitive information and content, and other forms of online violence. 
This International Women’s Day, visit EFF’s Surveillance Self-Defense (SSD) to learn how to defend yourself and your friends from surveillance. In addition to tutorials for installing and using security-friendly software, SSD walks you through concepts like making a security pl...
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Four Reasons to Protect the Internet this International Women’s Day
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/four-reasons-protect-internet-international-womens-day
March 8, 2024, 9:55 PM
Today is International Women’s Day, a day celebrating the achievements of women globally but also a day marking a call to action for accelerating equality and improving the lives of women the world over. 
The internet is a vital tool for women everywhere—provided they have access and are able to use it freely. Here are four reasons why we’re working to protect the free and open internet for women and everyone.
1. The Fight For Reproductive Privacy and Information Access Is Not Over
Data p...
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The Atlas of Surveillance Removes Ring, Adds Third-Party Investigative Platforms
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/atlas-surveillance-removes-ring-adds-third-party-investigative-platforms
March 8, 2024, 9:32 PM
Running the Atlas of Surveillance, our project to map and inventory police surveillance across the United States, means experiencing emotional extremes.
Whenever we announce that we've added new data points to the Atlas, it comes with a great sense of satisfaction. That's because it almost always means that we're hundreds or even thousands of steps closer to achieving what only a few years ago would've seemed impossible: comprehensively documenting the surveillance state through our partnership...
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Join us for EFF's 8th Annual Tech Trivia Night!
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/join-us-effs-8th-annual-tech-trivia-night
March 8, 2024, 8:56 PM
Join us in San Francisco on May 9th for EFF's 8th annual Tech Trivia Night! Explore the obscure minutiae of digital security, online rights, and internet culture.
Enjoy delicious tacos, churros, and complimentary adult beverages and soft drinks as you and your team battle through rounds of questions—and cutthroat live judging!—to see who will take home the coveted 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place trophies and EFF swag!
Register Now
$45 for CURRENT EFF Members • $55 for General Admission
Thursday,...
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Victory! EFF Helps Resist Unlawful Warrant and Gag Order Issued to Independent News Outlet
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/victory-eff-helps-resist-unlawful-warrant-and-gag-order-issued-independent-news
March 7, 2024, 8:44 PM
Over the past month, the independent news outlet Indybay has quietly fought off an unlawful search warrant and gag order served by the San Francisco Police Department. Today, a court lifted the gag order and confirmed the warrant is void. The police also promised the court to not seek another warrant from Indybay in its investigation.
Nevertheless, Indybay was unconstitutionally gagged from speaking about the warrant for more than a month. And the SFPD once again violated the law despite past as...
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Should Caddy and Traefik Replace Certbot?
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/should-caddy-and-traefik-replace-certbot
March 7, 2024, 5:25 PM
Can free and open source software projects like Caddy and Traefik eventually replace EFF’s Certbot? Although Certbot continues to be developed, we think tools like these help offer a promising path forward in the further development of a secure and encrypted web. For some users, tools like these can replace Certbot completely. 
We started development on Certbot in the mid-2010s with the goal of making it as easy as possible for website operators to offer HTTPS. To accomplish this, we made Cer...
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Privacy First and Competition
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/privacy-first-and-competition
March 6, 2024, 6:09 PM
“Privacy First” is a simple, powerful idea: seeing as so many of today’s technological problems are also privacy problems, why don’t we fix privacy first?
Whether you’re worried about kids’ mental health, or tech’s relationship to journalism, or spying by foreign adversaries, or reproductive rights, or AI deepfakes, or nonconsensual pornography, you’re worried about a problem rooted in the primitive, deplorable state of American privacy law.
It’s really impossible to overstate ...
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European Court of Human Rights Confirms: Weakening Encryption Violates Fundamental Rights
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/european-court-human-rights-confirms-undermining-encryption-violates-fundamental
March 5, 2024, 2:09 PM
In a milestone judgment—Podchasov v. Russia—the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that weakening of encryption can lead to general and indiscriminate surveillance of the communications of all users and violates the human right to privacy.  
In 2017, the landscape of digital communication in Russia faced a pivotal moment when the government required Telegram Messenger LLP and other “internet communication” providers to store all communication data—and content—for speci...
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Voting No on Prop E Is Easy and Important for San Francisco
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/voting-no-prop-e-easy-and-important-san-francisco
March 4, 2024, 10:11 PM
San Francisco’s ballot initiative Proposition E is a dangerous and deceptive measure that threatens our privacy, safety, and democratic ideals. It would give the police more power to surveil, chase, and harm. It would allow the police to secretly acquire and use unproven surveillance technologies for a year or more without oversight, eliminating the hard-won protections backed by a majority of San Franciscans that are currently in place. Prop E is not a solution to the city’s challenges, but...
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Celebrating 15 Years of Surveillance Self-Defense
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/celebrating-15-years-surveillance-self-defense
March 4, 2024, 6:59 PM
On March 3rd, 2009, we launched Surveillance Self-Defense (SSD). At the time, we pitched it as, "an online how-to guide for protecting your private data against government spying." In the last decade hundreds of people have contributed to SSD, over 20 million people have read it, and the content has nearly doubled in length from 40,000 words to almost 80,000. SSD has served as inspiration for many other guides focused on keeping specific populations safe, and those guides have in turn affected h...
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Privacy Isn't Dead. Far From It. | EFFector 36.3
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/privacy-isnt-dead-far-it-effector-363
March 4, 2024, 6:31 PM
As we continue the journey of fighting for digital freedoms, it can be hard to keep up on the latest happenings. Thankfully, EFF has a guide to keep you in the loop! EFFector 36.3 is out now and covers the latest news, including recent changes to the Kids Online Safety Act (spoiler alert: IT'S STILL BAD), why we flew a plane over San Francisco, and the first episode of Season 5 of our award-winning "How to Fix the Internet" podcast!
You can read the full newsletter here, or subscribe to get the ...
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A Virtual Reality Tour of Surveillance Tech at the Border: A Conversation with Dave Maass of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/virtual-reality-tour-surveillance-tech-border-conversation-dave-maass-electronic
March 4, 2024, 5:13 PM
This interview is crossposted from The Markup, a nonprofit news organization that investigates technology and its impact on society.
By: Monique O. Madan, Investigative Reporter at The Markup
After reading my daily news stories amid his declining health, my grandfather made it a habit of traveling the world—all from his desk and wheelchair. When I went on trips, he always had strong opinions and recommendations for me, as if he’d already been there. “I've traveled to hundreds of countrie...
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Ghana's President Must Refuse to Sign the Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/ghanas-president-must-refuse-sign-anti-lgbtq-bill
February 29, 2024, 10:52 PM
After three years of political discussions, MPs in Ghana's Parliament voted to pass the country’s draconian Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill on February 28th. The bill now heads to Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo to be signed into law. 
President Nana Akufo-Addo must protect the human rights of all people in Ghana and refuse to provide assent to the bill.
This anti-LGBTQ+ legislation introduces prison sentences for those who partake in LGBTQ+ sexual ...
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We Flew a Plane Over San Francisco to Fight Proposition E. Here's Why.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/yes-we-flew-plane-over-san-francisco-fight-proposition-eheres-why
February 29, 2024, 8:19 PM
Proposition E, which San Franciscans will be asked to vote on in the March 5 election, is so dangerous that last weekend we chartered a plane to inform our neighbors about what the ballot measure does and urge them to vote NO on it. If you were in Dolores Park, Golden Gate Park, Chinatown, or anywhere in between on Saturday, there’s a chance you saw it, with a huge banner flying through the sky: “No Surveillance State! No on Prop E.”
Despite the fact that the San Francisco Chronicle has en...
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Sen. Wyden Exposes Data Brokers Selling Location Data to Anti-Abortion Groups That Target Abortion Seekers
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/sen-wyden-exposes-data-brokers-selling-location-data-anti-abortion-groups-target
February 28, 2024, 12:58 AM
This post was written by Jack Beck, an EFF legal intern
In a recent letter to the FTC and SEC, Sen. Ron Wyden (OR) details new information on data broker Near, which sold the location data of people seeking reproductive healthcare to anti-abortion groups. Near enabled these groups to send targeted ads promoting anti-abortion content to people who had visited Planned Parenthood and similar clinics.
In May 2023, the Wall Street Journal reported that Near was selling location data to anti-abortion ...
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EFF to D.C. Circuit: The U.S. Government’s Forced Disclosure of Visa Applicants’ Social Media Identifiers Harms Free Speech and Privacy
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/eff-dc-circuit-us-governments-forced-disclosure-visa-applicants-social-media
February 27, 2024, 9:24 PM
Special thanks to legal intern Alissa Johnson, who was the lead author of this post.
EFF recently filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit urging the court to reverse a lower court decision upholding a State Department rule that forces visa applicants to the United States to disclose their social media identifiers as part of the application process. If upheld, the district court ruling has severe implications for free speech and privacy not just for visa applicants...
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Podcast Episode: Open Source Beats Authoritarianism
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/podcast-episode-open-source-beats-authoritarianism
February 27, 2024, 8:07 AM
What if we thought about democracy as a kind of open-source social technology, in which everyone can see the how and why of policy making, and everyone’s concerns and preferences are elicited in a way that respects each person’s community, dignity, and importance?


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EFF Statement on Nevada's Attack on End-to-End Encryption
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/eff-statement-nevadas-attack-end-end-encryption
February 26, 2024, 7:39 PM
EFF learned last week that the state of Nevada is seeking an emergency order prohibiting Meta from rolling out end-to-end encryption in Facebook Messenger for all users in the state under the age of 18. The motion for a temporary restraining order is part of a lawsuit by the state Attorney General alleging that Meta’s products are deceptively designed to keep users addicted to the platform. While we regularly fight legal attempts to limit social media access, which are primarily based on murky...
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EFF Urges Ninth Circuit to Reinstate X’s Legal Challenge to Unconstitutional California Content Moderation Law
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/eff-urges-ninth-circuit-reinstate-xs-legal-challenge-unconstitutional-california
February 23, 2024, 9:06 PM
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged a federal appeals court to reinstate X’s lawsuit challenging a California law that forces social media companies to file reports to the state about their content moderation decisions, and with respect to five controversial issues in particular—an unconstitutional intrusion into platforms’ right to curate hosted speech free of government interference.
While we are enthusiastic proponents of transparency and have worked, through the Santa Clara ...
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EFF Opposes California Initiative That Would Cause Mass Censorship
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/eff-opposes-california-initiative-would-cause-mass-censorship
February 23, 2024, 5:37 PM
In recent years, lots of proposed laws purport to reduce “harmful” content on the internet, especially for kids. Some have good intentions. But the fact is, we can’t censor our way to a healthier internet.
When it comes to online (or offline) content, people simply don’t agree about what’s harmful. And people make mistakes, even in content moderation systems that have extensive human review and appropriate appeals. The systems get worse when automated filters are brought into the mix�...
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As India Prepares for Elections, Government Silences Critics on X with Executive Order
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/india-prepares-elections-government-silences-critics-x-executive-order
February 23, 2024, 11:55 AM
It is troubling to see that the Indian government has issued new demands to X (formerly Twitter) to remove accounts and posts critical of the government and its recent actions. This is especially bears watching as India is preparing for general elections this spring, and concerns for the government’s manipulation of social media critical of it grows.
On Wednesday, X’s Global Government Affairs account (@GlobalAffairs) tweeted:
The Indian government has issued executive orders requiring X to ...
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Is the Justice Department Even Following Its Own Policy in Cybercrime Prosecution of a Journalist?
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/justice-department-even-following-its-own-policy-cybercrime-prosecution-journalist
February 23, 2024, 12:38 AM
Following an FBI raid of his home last year, the freelance journalist Tim Burke has been arrested and indicted in connection with an investigation into leaks of unaired footage from Fox News. The raid raised questions about whether Burke was being investigated for First Amendment-protected journalistic activities, and EFF joined a letter calling on the Justice Department to explain whether and how it believed Burke had actually engaged in wrongdoing. Although the government has now charged Burke...
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NSA Spying Shirts Are Back Just In Time to Tell Congress to Reform Section 702
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/nsa-spying-shirts-are-back-just-time-tell-congress-reform-section-702
February 22, 2024, 6:43 PM
We’ve been challenging the National Security Agency's mass surveillance of ordinary people since we first became aware of it nearly twenty years ago. Since then, tens of thousands of supporters have joined the call to fight what became Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, a law which was supposed to enable overseas surveillance of specific targets, but has become a backdoor way of mass spying on the communications of people in the U.S. Now, Section 702 is back up for a major renewal since i...
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Unregulated, Exploitative, and on the Rise: Vera Institute's Report on Electronic Monitoring
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/unregulated-exploitative-and-rise-vera-institutes-report-electronic-monitoring
February 21, 2024, 9:04 PM
Incarceration rates in the United States have long been among the highest in the world, and in response to the systemic flaws and biases unveiled by the renewed scrutiny of the criminal legal system, many advocates have championed new policies aimed at reducing sentences and improving conditions in prisons. Some have touted the use of electronic monitoring (EM) as an alternative fix to ensure that people whose cases have yet to be adjudicated are not physically detained. Unsurprisingly, those mo...
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Defending Access to the Decentralized Web
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/defending-access-decentralized-web
February 20, 2024, 7:51 PM
Decentralized web technologies have the potential to make the internet more robust and efficient, supporting a new wave of innovation. However, the fundamental technologies and services that make it work are already being hit with overreaching legal threats.
Exhibit A: the Interplanetary File System (IPFS). IPFS operates via a “distributed hash table,” essentially a way to look up the number (or “hash”) corresponding to a given file and see which network locations have chosen to offer th...
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