Announcement
EFF Appeals Dismissal of Warrantless Wiretapping Case
Announcement by Cindy CohnEFF today filed its appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals of the dismissal of Jewel v. NSA, the case EFF brought against the U.S. government and government officials on behalf of AT&T customers to stop the National Security Agency's illegal, unconstitutional, and ongoing mass surveillance of their communications and communications records. The case arises from the still growing stacks of evidence confirming the surveillance, including the technical documents presented by former AT&T employee Mark Klein that describe the NSA's secret mass wiretapping facility in San Francisco.
On January 21, 2010, the District Court dismissed the case based on the dangerous and incorrect theory that because so many people have been impacted by the widespread surveillance, no individual person has a "particularized injury." This ruling is not only wrong -- the NSA's interception of your private emails with your doctor, spouse or child is an individual harm to you regardless of whether it also happened to other people too -- but also extremely dangerous because it would have the courts blind themselves to massive violations of the law and the Constitution on the grounds that they impact too many people.
Despite disappointments from both the Obama Administration and now the Federal District Court, EFF will continue to fight to protect your privacy against the warrantless wiretapping in both the Jewel and the Hepting cases, each of which will next be argued before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Public Hearing on California's 'Smart Grid' on Friday
Announcement by Rebecca JeschkeWorried about plans for California's "smart grid"? We are too. Energy usage data, with new hyper-close monitoring provided by the "smart grid", allows intimate reconstruction of your household activities -- like when you wake up, when you come home, and when you go on vacation.
These concerns sparked our comments to the state's Public Utilities Commission last week, calling on the agency to consider critical privacy questions as it rolls out its "smart meters" across California. Now there's a chance for you to learn more and weigh in. This Friday, the California PUC is hosting a public hearing in San Francisco from 9:30 a.m to 4:30 p.m. at its headquarters at 505 Van Ness Ave. A panel on ensuring public privacy runs from 10:30 a.m. to noon. We hope to see you there.
Photos from EFF's 20th Birthday Party
Announcement by Katina BishopLast month, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the founding of EFF at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco, joined by Adam Savage, the founders of EFF and dozens of other Internet luminaries. For non-local EFF supporters, we've put the gorgeous photos that John Adams and Johnny Grace captured at the event up on our Flickr page.
Don't forget to check out EFF's 20th Anniversary commemorative t-shirt and poster designed by EFF senior designer Hugh D'Andrade! These are still available in our shop and through our donation page. You can also download hi-res versions and wallpaper from our flickr page here.
(photo by John Adams)
(photo by Johnny Grace)
(photo by John Adams)
(Photo by John Adams)
(Photo by Johnny Grace)
Thanks to everyone who joined us or donated — and here's to another 20 years!
Unintended Consequences: 12 Years Under the DMCA
Announcement by Fred von LohmannEFF today released Unintended Consequences: 12 Years Under the DMCA. This is the sixth update to the report, which aims to catalog all the reported instances where the DMCA's ban on tampering with DRM have been abused to stymie fair use, free speech, and competition, rather than to attack "piracy."
Congress enacted the DMCA's ban on bypassing DRM at the urging of entertainment industry lobbyists who argued that DRM backed by law would quell digital copyright infringement. Of course, 12 years later, that exactly hasn't worked out. Nor is it likely to ever work out. But lots of industries have recognized that these provisions of the DMCA are good for other things—like impeding scientific research and legitimate competition. The Unintended Consequences report collects these stories, including oldies like Lexmark's effort to block toner cartridge refilling and new cases like the lawsuit against RealDVD.
Other new additions to the report include Apple's use of the DMCA to lock iPhone owners to Apple's own App Store for software, Apple's DMCA threats against Bluwiki for hosting discussions about iPod interoperability, and Texas Instruments' use of the DMCA to threaten calculator hobbyists trying to write their own operating systems.
Although in many cases the DMCA abuser backs down or is beaten in court, the abuses and resulting chilling effect on legitimate activities continues. And even though the U.S. Copyright Office is considering proposed exemptions to the DMCA, that proceeding won't prevent more abuses in the future.
New Liberty Mecha T-Shirts and Posters!
Announcement by Aaron Jue
Who needs a jetpack when you have a digital freedom-fighting robotic exoskeleton? Check out EFF's 20th Anniversary commemorative t-shirt and poster designed by EFF staff designer Hugh D'Andrade! The artwork features the EFF Liberty Mecha warrior lighting the way and kicking down walls for your online rights.
Pick up the 20th anniversary poster! This is a high quality offset litho print suitable for framing. The image measures 13" X 19" on 18" X 24" heavy stock. It's just the thing to spruce up that server room.
This design also appears on our newest member t-shirt! These swanky royal blue shirts feature the EFF Liberty Mecha on the front and a steel-winged EFF logo on the back proclaiming 20 years of freedom. It's available in three different styles: women (S-XL), men (S-3XL), and youth (M-L). Get yours today!
Thanks for standing by us and for keeping EFF going!
10 Year Term of EFF Chairman Winds Down with EFF's 20th Anniversary Tonight
Announcement by Brad TempletonIn early 2000, after a tumultuous period in the EFF’s history, and the staff down to just a handful, I was elected chair of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I had been on the board for just a few years, but had been close to the organization since it was founded, including participating with it as a plaintiff in the landmark supreme court case which struck down the Communications Decency Act in 1996.
Having now served 10 years as chairman, it is time to rotate out, and I am happy to report the election of John Buckman, founder of Magnitune and Bookmooch (among other ventures) as our new chair. As a part-time resident of Europe, John will, like me, offer an international perspective to the EFF’s efforts. Pam Samuelson, a law-professor of stunning reputation and credentials, will act as vice-chair during the coming 5-year term, replacing John Perry Barlow.
I would love to claim credit for the EFF’s tremendous growth and success during my tenure, but the truth is that our active and star-studded board is a board of equals. We all take an active role in setting policy and attempting to guide the organization in its mission to protect important freedoms in the online world. While it would shock most of my previous employees, my board management has been very laissez-faire. I and the other board members try to let our great team do their stuff.
After I became chairman, one of the best things we on the board probably did was to re-recruit Shari Steele, our former legal director, to become the new executive director. Shari had been with the EFF for many years but had left to work on a new venture. We brought her back and it’s been positive ever since. We also recruited Cindy Cohn to be our legal director. Cindy had a long history of friendship with the organization, having worked tirelessly with our help on the fight to stop export controls on encryption. WIth these two appointments, I and my fellow board members started the course for an incredible decade. In spite of a chaotic global economy, during this period, our fundraising, budget and staff size have more than tripled. (That may seem minor for a dot-com but it’s great news for a non-profit.) We’ve boosted membership and membership dontations, increased funding from foundations, and created an endowment to assure the EFF’s future.
The EFF is now 20, so I’ve been privileged to chair it for half of its lifetime. In that period we’ve seen dramatic victories for free speech, privacy and freedom to program. We’ve stopped e-voting abuse and rootkits in your music CDs. We’ve protected bloggers as journalists and preserved anonymous speech online. We’ve stopped encryption software from being controlled like a munition and had so many other triumphs, big and small. We’ve also seen an expanded technical and activism program, as our technologists have led the way in unveiling things like secret dots generated by colour laser printers that track your printouts back to you and network interference with filesharing by cable ISPs.
We’ve also had our failures, but even those have spoken loudly about the quality of our team. When we took Grokster/Streamcast to the supreme court, our client lost, but the court laid down a fairly narrow standard that allows software developers building new generations of publishing products to know how to stay clear of liability. Our cases against the White House’s warrantless wiretapping program have hit major hurdles, one of which was an act of congress created specifically to nullify our attempts to have a court examine this program — granting a retroactive immunity to the phone companies that did it. Bad as that was, I figure if they have to get an act of congress to stop you, you know you’ve hit a nerve.
We’ve also hit many nerves with our great FOIA team that has uncovered all sorts of attacks on your rights, and continues to do so, and our team of activists and our new international team are working hard to promote our doctrine of free speech and freedom to develop technology around the world. With all our team does, many are shocked to find it is only around 30 people. Still, we could do much more and your donations are still what makes it all happen. I hope that if you believe in the duty to protect fundamental freedoms online, you will work towards it, or consider outsourcing that work with a donation to us.
I am not leaving the EFF — far from it. I will continue to be an active boardmember. In addition, I will begin to re-explore commercial ventures, seek new opportunities, and continue on my quest to become a leading evangelist for one of the world’s most exciting new technologies — robotic transportation. At my robocars site you can see my beginnings of a book on the subject, and why it may have the largest positive effect on the world that computer technology delivers in the medium term. Of course with my EFF hat on you will find growing sections on the freedom and privacy issues of the technology.
During my tenure, I have served with a tremendous group of fellow board members, as you can see from the biographies at the EFF board page. I will continue to work with them to protect your rights as the world becomes digital, and I hope you will all join with me in supporting the EFF with your thoughts and your dollars.
EFF's 20th Birthday Commemorative Poster
Announcement by Tim Jones
UPDATE: Downloadable wallpaper now available.
To celebrate 20 years of fighting for your digital rights, EFF staff designer Hugh D'Andrade came up with a commemorative poster! You can download your own hi-res copy from our Flickr page (on a Creative Commons Attribution License), and limited edition prints will be given to VIP Donors at our upcoming 20th Birthday celebration on February 10th at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco. The design will also be available on t-shirts on sale at the event.
Hope to see you there!
February 10, 2010
Doors open at 8 pm, VIP event at 7 pm
$30 donation (no one turned away)
DNA Lounge
375 Eleventh Street
San Francisco, CA
Help EFF Research Web Browser Tracking
Announcement by Peter EckersleyWhat fingerprints does your browser leave behind as you surf the web?
Traditionally, people assume they can prevent a website from identifying them by disabling cookies on their web browser. Unfortunately, this is not the whole story.
When you visit a website, you are allowing that site to access a lot of information about your computer's configuration. Combined, this information can create a kind of fingerprint — a signature that could be used to identify you and your computer. But how effective would this kind of online tracking be?
EFF is running an experiment to find out. Our new website Panopticlick will anonymously log the configuration and version information from your operating system, your browser, and your plug-ins, and compare it to our database of five million other configurations. Then, it will give you a uniqueness score — letting you see how easily identifiable you might be as you surf the web.
Adding your information to our database will help EFF evaluate the capabilities of Internet tracking and advertising companies, who are already using techniques of this sort to record people's online activities. They develop these methods in secret, and don't always tell the world what they've found. But this experiment will give us more insight into the privacy risk posed by browser fingerprinting, and help web users to protect themselves.
To join the experiment:
http://panopticlick.eff.org/
To learn more about the theory behind it:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/primer-information-theory-and-priva...
EFF Weighs in on Proposed FCC Net Neutrality Rules
Announcement by Fred von LohmannToday marks the deadline for the first round of comments to the FCC regarding its proposed "net neutrality" regulations. Here's a quick summary of what EFF had to say in its comments to the Commission:
While the question of how to best protect the openness of the Internet is a timely and important one, EFF believes the FCC currently lacks the statutory authority to issue the broad regulations on ISPs that it has proposed. The "ancillary jurisdiction" that the FCC has asserted as a basis for the regulations is legally insufficient and would, if accepted, give the FCC potentially unbounded power to regulate the Internet however it likes. In other words, if the FCC wants to issue net neutrality regulations, it needs to wait until Congress passes a net neutrality bill.
If the Commission nevertheless chooses to forge ahead with the regulations proposed, EFF urges it to make the following revisions designed to protect the free speech and privacy interests of Internet users, and to foster competition and innovation.
First, in order to protect the free speech interests of Internet users, the Commission should reject copyright enforcement as "reasonable network management." Copyright enforcement has nothing to do with the technical business of network management. Moreover, the proposed regulations, by their terms, already exclude "unlawful content," making any exception for copyright enforcement unnecessary. Should ISPs want to deploy copyright enforcement technologies that inflict collateral damage on lawful content, those ISPs should be required to submit any such technologies to the Commission for pre-deployment review as part of a transparent public waiver process.
Second, in order to protect the privacy interests of Internet users, the Commission should clarify that the law enforcement exception applies only to an ISP’s legal obligations to address the needs of law enforcement. Because the six proposed neutrality principles do not, by their terms, apply to unlawful content or activities, a general exception for law enforcement is unnecessary. Should ISPs want to voluntarily deploy technologies that would block lawful activity in the course of addressing the needs of law enforcement, those ISPs should be required to submit any such technologies to the Commission for pre-deployment review as part of a transparent, public waiver process.
Third, in order to protect the privacy interests of Internet users, the Commission should make it clear that its proposed regulations do not reach noncommercial providers of broadband Internet access service, whether they are individuals who operate open Wi-Fi networks at home, or public-minded entities that provide free Internet access in their local communities. The Commission should avoid the specter of federal regulation looming over noncommercial, public-spirited network providers. Federal regulation of these initiatives is not necessary to vindicate the openness, competition, innovation, and free expression goals of this proceeding.
Fourth, in order to foster competition and innovation, EFF urges the Commission to make it clear that the proposed "transparency" principle is not subject to an exception for "reasonable network management." As exemplified by the Commission’s ruling against Comcast regarding its discriminatory treatment of BitTorrent traffic, it is precisely when ISPs invoke the need for "reasonable network management" that the principle of transparency becomes most vital. Only if ISPs are required to adequately disclose their network management practices will consumers, competitors, innovators, and the Commission be able to evaluate whether the practices are, in fact, "reasonable."
Fifth, in order to foster competition and innovation, the Commission should require wireless ISPs to allow "tethering" as a form of device interconnection. This requirement is a necessary corollary to the principle that consumers should be entitled to use any lawful device or application that does not harm the network. Tethering facilitates interoperability, competition, and openness. Furthermore, tethering blocks some troubling practices that are already emerging in the marketplace.
Have You Been Subjected to Suspicionless Laptop Search or Seizure at the Border?
Announcement by Jennifer GranickEFF has long fought for the privacy of your laptop and other digital devices at the border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has implemented program that authorizes searches of the contents of travelers’ laptop computers and other electronic storage devices at border crossings, notwithstanding the absence of probable cause, reasonable suspicion or any indicia of wrongdoing.
In U.S. v. Arnold we fought for a requirement that customs agents have some reason before searching your computer and in our FOIA work on border searches, we have pushed the government to reveal its policies and practices in this area.
Now, another civil rights group, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is seeking potential plaintiffs for a lawsuit challenging suspicionless laptop searches. As a first step in this effort, NACDL is seeking to identify defense lawyers who have had their laptops searched at the border and are willing to serve as individual plaintiffs. In order to demonstrate the effect of this policy on members of the criminal defense bar and to support the constitutional challenge, NACDL plans to assemble a group of individual plaintiffs who will develop affidavits describing the harm they suffer by having their electronic information exposed to government officials.
This lawsuit will not seek monetary damages for individuals who have been searched; instead, it will focus exclusively on fixing the unconstitutional policy. Participating members will be represented at no charge by NACDL and ACLU attorneys.
EFF supports the NACDL and ACLU's joint effort. To determine whether you may qualify as a plaintiff, please consider the following:
- Have you ever had your laptop, cell phone or camera searched when entering or exiting the U.S.?
- Have you ever had the contents of your laptop, cell phone or camera copied when entering or exiting the U.S.?
- Have you ever had your laptop, cell phone or camera seized when entering or exiting the U.S.?
- If you are employed by someone else, does your employer have a policy about traveling internationally with laptops, cell phones or cameras?
- Do you avoid carrying confidential business or personal information on your laptop, cell phone or camera due to the suspicion-less search policy?
If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, and might be interested in joining the NACDL suit, please contact Michael Price, NACDL's National Security Coordinator, at (202) 872-8600 x258 or michael@nacdl.org.
