The UK government has had more than a year to revise its Online Safety Bill into a proposal that wouldn’t harm users’ basic rights. It has failed to do so, and the bill should be scrapped. The current bill is a threat to free expression, and it undermines the encryption that we a … | Continue reading
EFF is celebrating the spirit of Las Vegas hacker summer camp this week and—whether you're online or in person—you're invited to support the movement for digital freedom. Technology touches more of your life every day. Whether you’re telling a friend you’re on the way or you’re f … | Continue reading
Reports have surfaced about the removal of information about abortion from social media. Unfortunately, none of it is unprecedented. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram have long maintained broad and vague community standards that allows them to remove content with little recou … | Continue reading
There's a lot of discussion right now about how a federal privacy bill, the American Data Privacy Protection Act (H.R.8152), will affect state privacy laws. EFF has a clear position on this: federal privacy laws should not roll back state privacy protections. The ADPPA, as curren … | Continue reading
Nominations Now Open for the 2022 EFF AwardsFor thirty years, the Electronic Frontier Foundation presented awards to key leaders in the fight for freedom and innovation online. EFF’s annual Pioneer Award Ceremony celebrated the longtime stalwarts working on behalf of technology u … | Continue reading
EFF is disappointed by the latest draft of the American Data Privacy Protection Act, or the ADPPA (H.R. 8152), a federal comprehensive data privacy bill. The bill passed the U.S. House Energy and Commerce committee on Wednesday, and is headed to the House floor. We have been clos … | Continue reading
How transparent are police about surveillance technology? It depends on where you look. When it comes to acceptable levels of secrecy around police tools, states have drawn their lines in very different places, resulting in some communities where it is much harder for the public … | Continue reading
EFF joined the Association of Progressive Communications (APC) and other digital rights organizations from around the world, urging the Indian government to withdraw its new amendment to Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code (2021 IT Rules). EFF has already expres … | Continue reading
11 July 2022 H.E. Ms. Faouzia Boumaiza Mebarki ChairpersonAd Hoc Committee to Elaborate a Comprehensive International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communication Technologies for Criminal Purposes Your Excellency, We, the undersigned, represent NGOs accredit … | Continue reading
The DEF CON hacking conference is back in Las Vegas for its 30th year and we’re going all in on internet freedom. Security expert Tarah Wheeler will host EFF's first charity poker tournament at Bally's Poker Room on Friday, August 12. The event features emcee Jen Easterly and mor … | Continue reading
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court has ruled that a seven-month ban on Twitter by Nigerian authorities in 2021 was unlawful and infringed freedom of expression and access to media. The court, which is a political and economic union of fifteen West Africa … | Continue reading
Nominations are now open for the 2022 EFF Awards! The nomination window will be open until August 2nd at 2:00 PM Pacific time. You could nominate the next winner today!For thirty years, the Electronic Frontier Foundation presented awards to key leaders in the fight for freedom an … | Continue reading
In a letter to the Indian Government, EFF and partner digital rights organizations from around the world called on the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to withdraw the so-called traceability requirement under its Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media … | Continue reading
Amazon’s Ring devices are not just personal security cameras. They are also police cameras—whether you want them to be or not. The company now admits there are “emergency” instances when police can get warrantless access to Ring personal devices without the owner’s permission. Th … | Continue reading
In the past couple of decades, EFF has argued that when it comes to suspicionless and warrantless searches at the border, electronic devices like cell phones are not the same as a piece of luggage. Although certain searches at the border are permitted without a warrant, the searc … | Continue reading
A recent District Court decision in In re DMCA 512(h) Subpoena to Twitter, Inc. is a great win for free speech. The Court firmly rejected the argument that copyright law creates a shortcut around the First Amendment’s protections for anonymous critics. In the case, a company trie … | Continue reading
Congress must pass the Jacobs-Davidson Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the yearly funding bill for national security and the military. It would require the Department of Defense to disclose, both to Congress and the public, information about when it pu … | Continue reading
Data brokers harvest location information from our phone apps, then sell access to the highest bidder, including government. This is a way sheriffs and bounty hunters in anti-abortion states may try to identify and punish people seeking and providing abortion. Some good news: thr … | Continue reading
When people fear that the police are about to break the law, they pull out their phones and hit “record.” Doing so promotes police accountability and public discussion of important issues. So, it is great news that yet another federal appellate court has ruled that people have a … | Continue reading
The First Amendment grants us all the right to say our piece. The government can’t shut down our rights to speak out, protest, and publish. At EFF, we’ve been making sure that we have strong First Amendment rights in the online world for more than 30 years. Government repression … | Continue reading
Today at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, we’re celebrating 32 years of fighting for technology users around the world. If you were online back in the 90s, you might remember that it was pretty wild. We had bulletin boards, FTP, Gopher, and, a few years later, homespun website … | Continue reading
A large coalition of community and civil rights organizations have sent a letter urging the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to oppose or significantly amend a San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) proposal that would drastically increase their surveillance powers— threatening … | Continue reading
EFF joined SAFEnet and a dozen digital rights organizations in urging the Indonesian Minister of Communication and Information to repeal its invasive content moderation rules, known as the Ministerial Regulation Number 5 (MR5) and its amendment, Ministerial Regulation Number 10 ( … | Continue reading
Internet Archive’s Controlled Digital Lending Program Is Lawful Fair Use That Preserves Traditional Library Lending in the Digital WorldSAN FRANCISCO—The Internet Archive has asked a federal judge to rule in its favor and end a radical lawsuit, filed by four major publishing comp … | Continue reading
There is a traditional Japanese concept called wabi-sabi that recognizes the world as impermanent, evolving, and unfinished. You could call it the beauty of embracing imperfection. Despite the sleek, otherworldly look of today’s tech devices, the internet itself is still chaotic, … | Continue reading
The laws have Important tools to make the internet a fairer place, but there are implementation challenges ahead.SAN FRANCISCO–The European Union reached another milestone by approving the “Digital Services Act package” this week. The Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets … | Continue reading
The best legal minds in the Bay Area returned after two years to once again gather in-person for EFF's 14th Annual Cyberlaw Trivia Night on June 16th. Participants from technology law firms and internet companies throughout the Bay Area attended for a night filled with obscure te … | Continue reading
The best legal minds in the Bay Area returned after two years to once again gather in-person for EFF's 14th Annual Cyberlaw Trivia Night on June 16th. Participants from technology law firms and internet companies throughout the Bay Area attended for a night filled with obscure te … | Continue reading
Panamá’s mobile internet service providers have improved their commitments to transparency and user privacy, according to the new edition of IPANDETEC’s ¿Quien Defiende Tus Datos? (“Who Defends Your Data?”) report. The third edition, published today shows general progress in comp … | Continue reading
Since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision depriving people of the right to abortion leaked last month, some have advised deleting period tracking apps to prevent that data from being used to target people seeking abortion care. But it’s useful to distinguish between the security a … | Continue reading
Should the police be able to ask Google for the name of everyone who searched for the address of an abortion provider in a state where abortions are now illegal? Or who searched for the drug mifepristone? What about people who searched for gender-affirming healthcare providers in … | Continue reading
Want the latest news on your digital rights? Well, you're in luck! Version 34, issue 4 of our EFFector newsletter is out now. Catch up on the latest EFF news by reading our newsletter or listening to the audio version below. This issue covers EFF's current work on reproductive ri … | Continue reading
Here at EFF, we fight hard to ensure your security and privacy rights are maintained in the digital world. Back when we were founded in 1990, a dream of a world united by the internet was accompanied by forward-thinking visions of connected devices of all kinds making our lives m … | Continue reading
In response to the very real pressures that online news outlets are facing, Congress continues to believe the very flawed Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) is a magic solution. It is not. In fact, it is actively dangerous. And there’s a better solution available. … | Continue reading
While encryption has been under attack in recent days, it’s still essential for private and secure electronic communications, especially for human rights defenders and journalists. EFF and our partners recently argued for the essentiality of encryption in a case before the Europe … | Continue reading
Today's decision deprives millions of people of a fundamental right, and also underscores the importance of fair and meaningful protections for data privacy. Everyone deserves to have strong controls over the collection and use of information they necessarily leave behind as they … | Continue reading
In May, Senators Mike Lee, Amy Klobuchar, Ted Cruz, and Richard Blumenthal introduced the “Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act.” The bill, also called the “Digital Advertising Act” or just “DAA” for short, is an ambitious attempt to regulate, and even break up … | Continue reading
Given the shifting state of the law, people seeking an abortion, or any kind of reproductive healthcare that might end with the termination of a pregnancy, may need to pay close attention to their digital privacy and security. We've previously covered how those involved in the a … | Continue reading
Westlaw, the world’s largest legal research service, is very likely to face antitrust liability. A federal court has ruled that ROSS Intelligence, a tiny rival offering new research tools (which Westlaw forced out of business with a copyright infringement suit) could proceed with … | Continue reading
Copyright law cannot be used as a shortcut around the First Amendment’s strong protections for anonymous internet users, a federal trial court ruled on Tuesday. The decision by a judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California confirms that copyr … | Continue reading
A (Very) Narrow Path to Holding Social Media Companies Legally Liable for Collaborating with Government in Content Moderation For the last several years we have seen numerous arguments that social media platforms are "state actors" that “must carry” all user speech. According to … | Continue reading
EFF supports Rep. Sara Jacobs’ “My Body, My Data" Act, which will protect the privacy and safety of people seeking reproductive health care. Privacy fears should never stand in the way of healthcare. That's why this common-sense bill will require businesses and non-governmental o … | Continue reading
A copyright holder can’t use a court order against the owner of an infringing website to conscript every intermediary service on the internet into helping make that website disappear, EFF and the Computer & Communications Industry Association argued in an amicus brief. The brief, … | Continue reading
A new quasi-court for copyright, with nationwide reach, began accepting cases this week. The “Copyright Claims Board” or “CCB,” housed within the Copyright Office in Washington DC, will rule on private copyright infringement lawsuits from around the country and award damages of u … | Continue reading
Much of what we do online involves reproducing copyrightable material, changing it, and/or making new works. Technically, pretty much every original tweet is copyrightable. And the vast majority of memes are based on copyrighted works. Your funny edits, mashups, and photoshopped … | Continue reading
EFF Legal Intern Talya Nevins contributed to the drafting of this blog post. A federal appellate court in Massachusetts has issued a ruling that effectively allows federal agents in Puerto Rico and most of New England to secretly watch and videorecord all activity in front of any … | Continue reading
Last year, several parents at EFF enrolled kids into daycare and were instantly told to download an application for managing their children’s care. Daycare and preschool applications frequently include notifications of feedings, diaper changes, pictures, activities, and which gua … | Continue reading
In December, 2020, Apple did something insanely great. They changed how iOS, their mobile operating system, handled users’ privacy preferences, so that owners of iPhones and other iOS devices could indicate that they don’t want to be tracked by any of the apps on their devices. I … | Continue reading