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 t … | Continue reading
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 journal … | Continue reading
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 … | Continue reading
We’re pleased to see Apple has come out with an Android app called Tracker Detect that addresses some of the serious threats to privacy and safety we identified with Apple AirTags when they debuted. Quarter-sized Bluetooth-enabled homing beacons marketed as a way to track lost lu … | Continue reading
YouTube recently released a transparency report on the status of copyright claims for the first half of 2021. It says it will release these numbers biannually from now on. We applaud this move towards transparency, since it gives researchers a better look at what’s happening on t … | Continue reading
We are now accepting submissions for The Foilies 2022, the annual project to give tongue-in-cheek awards to the officials and institutions that behave badly (or ridiculously) when served with a request for public records. | Continue reading
On December 1, hours before Texas’ social media law, HB 20, was slated to go into effect, a federal court in Texas blocked it for violating the First Amendment. Like a similar law in Florida, which was blocked and is now pending before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the T … | Continue reading
It's been over two years since our initial response to Google's Manifest V3 proposal. Manifest V3 is the latest set of changes to the Chrome browser’s rules for browser extensions. Each extensions manifest version update introduces backwards-incompatible changes to ostensibly mov … | Continue reading
Fix What is Broken vs Break What Works: Oscillating Between Policy ChoicesThe European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) is a big deal. It's the most significant reform of Europe’s internet platform legislation in twenty years and the EU Commission has proposed multiple new rule … | Continue reading
Podcast Episode 105Law enforcement wants to force companies to build a backdoor to the software that runs on your phones, tablets, and other devices. This would allow easier access to the information on your device and the information that flows through it, including your private … | Continue reading
We have an amazing opportunity to join the EFF team.We are hiring a Senior Fellow of Decentralization, a position that is a public advocate helping to establish EFF as a leader in the civil liberties implications of decentralizing the Internet. You’ll help chart a course for EFF … | Continue reading
You have the right under the First Amendment to livestream and record on-duty police officers and officers who interfere with that right should be held accountable. That’s what EFF told the Fourth and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals in amicus briefs filed in November. EFF is supp … | Continue reading
Lawmakers looking for a starting place on privacy legislation should pass on The Uniform Law Commission’s Uniform Personal Data Protection Act (UPDPA). The Uniform Law Commission (ULC) seeks to write model legislation that can be adopted in state legislatures across the country t … | Continue reading
Today, December 10, is International Human Rights Day. On this day in 1948, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the document that lays out the principles and building blocks of current and future human rights instruments. In honor of this … | Continue reading
Manifest V3, Google Chrome’s soon-to-be definitive basket of changes to the world of web browser extensions, has been framed by its authors as “a step in the direction of privacy, security, and performance.” But we think these changes are a raw deal for users. We’ve said that sin … | Continue reading
More than 200 newspapers have filed suit against Google and Facebook (AKA “Meta”), alleging that the tech giants colluded to rig ad markets so that they could misappropriate ad revenues that were properly owed to the publishers. Strip away all the ornamental complexity and it’s o … | Continue reading
Portland, Oregon—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a lawsuit today on behalf of prominent Saudi human rights activist Loujain AlHathloul against spying software maker DarkMatter Group and three of its former executives for illegally hacking her iPhone to secretly tra … | Continue reading
San Francisco—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a coalition of civil society organizations and academics today released the second edition of the Santa Clara Principles on Transparency and Accountability In Content Moderation, adding standards directed at government an … | Continue reading
With the Snowden revelations in 2013 on NSA spying, many who were outraged sought to channel their frustrations first into mobilizing protests against state surveillance, and then into organizing local groups in defense of Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and s … | Continue reading
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed a public school’s punishment of students for speech posted on social media. It was unclear from the lower court proceedings whether the students had posted to social media while on-campus or off-campus. EFF had urged the co … | Continue reading
Episode 104 of EFF’s How to Fix the InternetHow do we make the Internet more secure? Part of the solution is incentives, according to Tarah Wheeler, this week’s guest on EFF’s How to Fix the Internet. As a security researcher with deep experience in the hacker community, Tarah ta … | Continue reading
Brazil’s biggest internet and telecommunications providers continue to make strides towards better protection of customer data and greater transparency about their privacy practices, according to InternetLab’s 2021 “Quem Defende Seus Dados?" (“Who defends your data?)" report. Rel … | Continue reading
In 2012, when Twitter announced in a blog post that it was launching a system that would allow the company to take down content on a country-by-country basis—as opposed to taking it down across the entire Twitter network—EFF defended that decision as the least terrible option. Af … | Continue reading
Along with the trove of "Facebook Papers" recently leaked to press outlets was a document that Facebook has, until now, kept intentionally secret: its list of "Dangerous Organizations and Individuals." This list comprises supposed terrorist groups, hate groups, criminal groups, a … | Continue reading
In the past few weeks, the Biden Administration has finally moved forward with nominations to the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission. One of those nominees, Gigi Sohn (who, fair disclosure, has been an EFF board member), is testifying right now, an … | Continue reading
Power Up Your Donation Week is here! Starting on #GivingTuesday, your contribution to EFF will have double the impact on digital privacy, security, and free speech rights for everyone. Donate today and get an automatic 2x match! | Continue reading
The bots that try to moderate speech online are doing a terrible job, and the humans in charge of the biggest tech companies aren’t doing any better. Join EFF’s Cindy Cohn and Danny O’Brien as they talk to Stanford’s Daphne Keller about why the current approach to content moderat … | Continue reading
We’ve got an amazing opportunity for a senior media relations person to join the EFF team.Right now, we are hiring for a Media Relations Director role, a leadership role that oversees and directs EFF’s press strategy and engagement. Join EFF and help explain to journalists and th … | Continue reading
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) grants more than 300,000 patents each year. Some of those patent grants represent genuine new inventions, but many of them don’t. On average, patent examiners have about 18 hours to spend on each application. That’s not enough time to … | Continue reading
In this guest post by the Coalition Against Stalkerware marking its second anniversary, the international alliance takes a look back on its achievements while seeing a lot of challenges ahead.Two years ago, in November 2019, the Coalition Against Stalkerware was founded by 10 org … | Continue reading
A UN human rights committee examining the status of civil and political rights in Germany took aim at the country’s Network Enforcement Act, or NetzDG, criticizing the hate speech law in a recent report for enlisting social media companies to carry out government censorship, with … | Continue reading
The EU’s Proposal for a Digital Market Act (DMA) is an attempt to create a fairer and more competitive market for online platforms in the EU. It sets out a standard for very large platforms, which act as gatekeepers between business users and end users. As gatekeepers “have subst … | Continue reading
Episode 102 of EFF’s How to Fix the InternetThe open source movement focuses on collaboration and empowerment of users. It plays a critical role in building a better digital future, but the movement is changing as more people from around the world join and bring their diverse int … | Continue reading
When Google introduced Manifest V3 in 2019, web extension developers were alarmed at the amount of functionality that would be taken away for features they provide users. Especially features like blocking trackers and providing secure connections. This new iteration of Google Chr … | Continue reading
The ACLU of Northern California has concluded a year-long Freedom of Information campaign by uncovering massive spying on Black Lives Matter protests from the air. The California Highway Patrol directed aerial surveillance, mostly done by helicopters, over protests in Berkeley, O … | Continue reading
Indonesia’s Constitutional Court dealt another blow to the free expression and online privacy rights of the country’s 191 million internet users, ruling that the government can lawfully block internet access during periods of social unrest. The October decision is the latest chap … | Continue reading
Want the latest news on your digital rights? Then you’ve come to the right place! Version 33, issue 7 of EFFector, our monthly-ish newsletter, is out now! Catch up on the latest EFF news, from how Apple is listening and retracting some of its phone-scanning features to how Congre … | Continue reading
The Right to Repair movement got a boost this week, when Apple announced a new program, Self Service Repair, that will let people buy genuine Apple parts and tools to make some of their own repairs to limited Apple products such as newer iPhones and some Macs. It will be starting … | Continue reading
Judges cannot minimize the First Amendment rights of anonymous speakers who use an organization’s logo, especially when that use may be intended to send a message to the trademark owner, EFF told a federal appeals court this week.EFF filed its brief in the U.S. Court of Appeal fo … | Continue reading
San Francisco—Troubled when Twitter takes down posts of people or organizations you follow? Concerned about protecting yourself and your community from surveillance? Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has got you, with the launch today of the first season of the How to Fix the … | Continue reading
Episode 101 of EFF’s How to Fix the InternetIf you get pulled over and a police officer asks for your phone, beware. Local police now have sophisticated tools that can download your location and browsing history, texts, contacts, and photos to keep or share forever. Join EFF’s Ci … | Continue reading
It seems like everywhere we turn we see dystopian stories about technology’s impact on our lives and our futures—from tracking-based surveillance capitalism to street level government surveillance to the dominance of a few large platforms choking innovation to the growing pressur … | Continue reading
In the U.S., we need better internet. We need oversight over Big Tech, ISPs, and other large companies. We need the federal agencies with the powers to advance competition, protect privacy, and empower consumers to be fully staffed and working. And with the new infrastructure leg … | Continue reading
Every year or so, a new Facebook scandal emerges. These blowups follow a fairly standard pattern, at least in the U.S. First, new information is revealed that the company misled users about an element of the platform—data sharing and data privacy, extremist content, ad revenue, r … | Continue reading
Washington, D.C.—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today urged the Supreme Court today to review and reverse a lower court decision in United States v. Tuggle finding that police didn’t need a warrant to secretly record all activity in front of someone’s home 24 hours a da … | Continue reading
Since August, EFF and others have been telling Apple to cancel its new child safety plans. Apple is now changing its tune about one component of its plans: the Messages app will no longer send notifications to parent accounts.That’s good news. As we’ve previously explained, this … | Continue reading
EFF invites everyone to participate this Saturday, Nov. 13, in this year's (virtual) Aaron Swartz Day and International Hackathon—an annual event celebrating the life and continuing legacy of activist, programmer, and entrepreneur Aaron Swartz. Aaron Swartz was a digital rights c … | Continue reading
Even people who get sued over patents often can’t figure out who is demanding money from them. We’re glad to see the issue of patent transparency come back to Congress, in the form of a recently introduced bill called the “Pride in Patent Ownership” Act. However, because the bill … | Continue reading