Community Control of Police Spy Tech in Oakland
Oakland could become the next community in California to adopt an open and rigorous vetting process for police surveillance technology. All too often, government executives unilaterally decide to adopt powerful new surveillance technologies that invade our privacy, chill our free speech, and unfairly burden communities of color. These intrusive and...
EFF, Sen. Anderson Sponsor California License Plate Privacy Legislation
Sacramento—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Sen. Joel Anderson (R-Alpine) have introduced a California bill to protect drivers’ privacy by allowing them to cover their license plates while parked to avoid being photographed by automated license plate readers ( ALPRs ). The legislation will be considered by the California...
Actually, Congress Did Undermine Our Internet Privacy Rights
Don't listen to the telecom lobby. Congress' vote to repeal the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) broadband privacy rules has a profound impact on your online privacy rights. According to those who supported the repeal, the rules never took effect (they were scheduled to do so throughout 2017), so the repeal...
California: Let’s End Unchecked Police Surveillance
All surveillance is political. Nowhere is this more evident than on the local level when law enforcement acquires new surveillance technology. Too often, the political process advantages police over the public interest. In California, a new bill— S.B. 21 —offers the rare opportunity to shift the balance in favor...
The WIPO Broadcasting Treaty Would be a Body Blow for Online Video
This week EFF is in Geneva, at the Thirty-Fourth session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), to oppose a Broadcasting Treaty that could limit the use of video online. Ahead of this meeting, word was...
Congress Should Leave Alice Alone
Overturning the Supreme Court Decision Would Allow Abstract Patents to Hurt innovation One of the most important cases to cut back on the availability of vague, abstract patents was the 2014 decision Alice v. CLS Bank . In Alice , the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the...
Limitations of ISP Data Pollution Tools
Republicans in Congress recently voted to repeal the FCC’s broadband privacy rules. As a result, your Internet provider may be able to sell sensitive information like your browsing history or app usage to advertisers, insurance companies, and more, all without your consent. In response, Internet users have been asking what...
What Don’t You Want the NSA to Know About You?
For years, U.S. government surveillance of innocent Americans has been a topic of heated debate, especially for those in the tech community. With Congress gearing up for a fight over the 2017 reauthorization of a surveillance authority that lets the NSA spy on innocent Americans without a warrant—Section 702, enacted...
Courts Must Allow Online Platforms to Defend Their Users' Free Speech Rights, EFF Tells Court
Online platforms must be allowed to assert their anonymous users’ First Amendment rights in court, EFF argued in a brief filed Monday in a California appellate court. The case, Yelp v. Superior Court , concerns whether online review website Yelp has the legal right to appear in court and make...
Chinese Government and Hollywood Launch Snoop-and-Censor Copyright Filter
Two weeks ago the Copyright Society of China (also known as the China Copyright Association) launched its new 12426 Copyright Monitoring Center , which is dedicated to scanning the Chinese Internet for evidence of copyright infringement. This frightening panopticon is said to be...
Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission
EFF Investigative Researcher Dave Maass will testify before the City of Oakland's Privacy Advisory Commission on law enforcement use of automated license plate readers (ALPRs). He will discuss the various types of ALPR systems , compliance with S.B. 34 transparency requirements , and EFF's research based on receiving...
Post-TPP Special 301 Report Shows How Little Has Changed
Last Friday the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released the 2017 edition of its Special 301 Report [PDF], which the USTR issues each year to "name and shame" other countries that the U.S. claims should be doing more to protect and enforce their copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade...
Hearing Wednesday: EFF Argues Against Massive Government Hacking in ‘Playpen’ Case
Boston – On Wednesday, May 3, at 9:30 am, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will argue that an FBI search warrant used to hack thousands of computers around the world was unconstitutional. The hearing in U.S. v. Levin at the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit stems...
EFF's Executive Director speaking at Collision Conference
Cindy Cohn will be speaking at three different panels at Collision on May 2, 2017. Please come by for Taking a Stand: How companies can defend their users when the state comes knocking at 11am, The Forum - politics, policy, governanace, and tech at 1pm, and First 100 Days: Tech...
The End of the NSA's ‘About’ Searches Is Just the Beginning
The NSA is stopping its use of one controversial surveillance technique that impacts Americans' privacy. Make no mistake. This is good news for anyone who wants government surveillance to follow the law. But there’s much more to be done to rein in unconstitutional spying. Initially reported by The New...
