Press Mentions: August, 2006
e>EFF in the NewsEFF in the News: August 2006
August 31, 2006
Security Focus
"Trusted computing a shield against worst attacks?"
A report published this week by computer firmware developer Phoenix Technologies concluded that the risks posed by the most damaging digital attacks could be eliminated if companies adopted technology to identify users' computers on the network...
Even if companies accept that device identification could stymie 84 percent of the most damaging attacks, that does not necessarily mean that trusted computing is the only way to go, said Seth Schoen, staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who has researched the potential societal effects of trusted computing in the past.
August 30, 2006
PC Pro
"EFF decries patenting 'suggestion test'"
US digital rights campaigners have asked the country's Supreme Court to overturn a patent law ruling that they believe poses a serious threat to Free and Open Source Software projects...
'Free and Open Source Software projects have become an integral part of the software industry and our nation's economy,' said EFF staff attorney Jason Schultz. 'They often lack the resources or formal documentation to fight against bogus patents under the suggestion test, so it is principally important that the Supreme Court set the appropriate standard to prevent the approval of bogus patents.'
August 30, 2006
San Francisco Examiner
"A leash for luggage? SFO OKs radio tags"
By Edward Carpenter
While stopping short of a promise to put an end to lost luggage, airport officials Tuesday approved a test run of new technology aimed at significantly reducing the number of lost bags...
In spite of the apparent benefits, privacy advocates at the Electronic Frontier Foundation said RFID tagging raises questions about personal privacy. "Once you let go of your luggage, you have no idea what they're doing with it," said Lee Tien, EFF senior staff attorney.
August 30, 2006
Washington Post
"FBI Shows Off Counterterrorism Database"
By Ellen Nakashima
The FBI has built a database with more than 659 million records'including terrorist watch lists, intelligence cables and financial transactions'culled from more than 50 FBI and other government agency sources...
David Sobel, senior counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the Federal Register has no record of the creation of such a system, a basic requirement of the Privacy Act. He also said the FBI's use of an internal privacy assessment undercuts the intent of the privacy law...
"It appears to be the largest collection of personal data ever amassed by the federal government," he said. "When they develop the capability to cross-reference and data-mine all these previously separate sources of information, there are significant new privacy issues that need to be publicly debated."
August 30, 2006
San Jose Mercury News
"Comcast blacklists e-mail from online group"
By Elise Ackerman
A decade before Microsoft released the first version of its Internet Explorer browser and nearly a generation before MySpace, The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, otherwise known as The WELL, was the place to be on the Internet.
Danny O'Brien, activist coordinator at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group founded by three members of The WELL, said the incident highlights the hazard of using blacklists to fight spam.
"The problem is Internet service providers acting as go-betweens, between outgoing e-mail and incoming, and making their own decisions that aren't clear to their end users,'' he said.
O'Brien said a server he set up for a community in Oregon has also recently been blocked by Comcast, with no explanation.
"It's a real shame that we have such a lack of competition in the broadband market that this can happen,'' he said.
August 29, 2006
Security Focus
"Data thieves breach AT&T online store"
Telecommunications giant AT&T announced on Tuesday that the company is contacting "fewer than 19,000" people who bought high-speed Internet hardware from the company's online store, after unknown attackers accessed customer accounts without authorization this past weekend...
The company is currently being sued in a California court by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for cooperating with the National Security Agency's controversial surveillance program.
August 29, 2006
Computer Business Review
"EFF Says Patent Law Is a Danger to Open Source"
The Electronic Frontier Foundation last week asked the United States Supreme Court to intervene in a recent patent law ruling that it believes could be particularly damaging to free and open source software...
"The... suggestion test forces litigants to search through reams of technical papers for a document in which someone, somewhere, bothers to state the obvious," said EFF staff attorney, Corynne McSherry, in a statement.
August 28, 2006
Toronto Star
"Content-Blocking a Can of Worms"
By Michael Geist
More than a decade ago, John Gilmore, one of the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, coined the phrase "the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."
Last week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission declined to wade into this issue in a case that placed the spotlight on how Canada's Internet service providers treat illegal content that originates outside the country.
August 28, 2006
New York Times
"Purple, the Color of a Legal Conniption"
By Tom Zeller, Jr.
Until last week, the urge to punch purple dinosaurs in the face was entirely passé—sort of like wanting to punt Cabbage Patch Dolls or step on Tickle Me Elmo's windpipe...
On Wednesday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group based in San Francisco, filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in New York against Lyons Partnership of Allen, Tex., which owns the Barney brand.
The group's aim is to bring an end to what it characterizes as the partnership's relentless harassment of Web site owners who parody the Barney character, chiefly through threatening cease-and-desist letters from Lyons's law firm in New York, Gibney, Anthony & Flaherty.
August 27, 2006
Los Angeles Times
Editorial: "Barney's Thin Purple Skin"
For a tyrannosaurus rex, Barney has remarkably thin skin. And, as with so many celebrities, Barney's lawyers are all too eager to shield his purple flesh from the sting of criticism...
[T]he Electronic Frontier Foundation filed suit in federal court in New York asking for a declaration that Frankel's parody of Barney was protected by law.
The foundation is right. Lyons, which has sent threatening letters and e-mails to numerous parody sites over the years, seems to think that copyrights trump the 1st Amendment.
August 27, 2006
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
"What searches show - or don't"
By Ian Katz
The online searches of AOL user 2936926 included "mommy and me classes in Boca Raton," "ratings of plasma TVs," "discount Gucci shoes" and the foot ailment "plantar fasciitis"...
"It's a veritable honey pot for the government and subpoenas," said Derek Slater of the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission claiming that AOL deceived customers and broke its own privacy policy by releasing the data. The AOL incident should be a "wake-up call" that Congress needs to conduct hearings and consider passing a law addressing search query storage, he said.
August 26, 2006
The New Zealand Herald
"Online spy plan raises fears over privacy"
By Patrick Gower
Powerful, intrusive new technology is about to be used to spy on New Zealanders online...
The Electronic Freedom Frontier (EFF), a United States-based internet civil liberties watchdog, said claims the pirate-hunting software could trace internet searches were new. "You may occasionally search Google for information about downloading a movie, but you are going to make a hundred unrelated searches, [maybe] about a medical condition, your sexual orientation and political beliefs," said EFF senior lawyer Fred von Lohmann. "No one should be fooled by their argument that just because they are trying to stop piracy they should be allowed to do whatever they want."
August 25, 2006
The Inquirer
"Barney the Dinosaur goes before the beak"
By Nick Farrell
A website owner who claims to have suffered years of legal threats because of his parody site about Barney the Dinosaur finally has got his day in court...
According to the EFF, the Lyons Partnership has repeatedly sent "meritless cease-and-desist letters to Stuart Frankel because his website pokes fun of Barney the purple dinosaur, which is a children's television character".
August 25, 2006
CNET News
"Barney the dinosaur in legal wrangle"
By Declan McCullagh
Barney, the plush purple saurian, likes to sing about love, hugs and kisses.
But the dinosaur's lawyers have taken precisely the opposite view when threatening Web sites that display less-than-flattering images of the plump T-Rex'a legal tactic that finally led to a lawsuit on Wednesday from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
August 25, 2006
TechNewsWorld
"Liberties Group Claims Patent Rule Hurts Open Source"
By John P. Mello, Jr.
A legal test used to assess the validity of patents threatens the development of free and open source software, according to a civil liberties group...
The legal benchmark'called the teaching-suggestion-motivation test'has been used by federal courts for more than a decade, but it's never been reviewed by the nation's highest court until now, according to EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry.
August 25, 2006
The Daily Telegraph
"Barney the dinosaur in copyright flap"
An online activist group said it would sue the operators of children's television character Barney the dinosaur for trying to use copyright laws to halt an Internet parody...
"Barney's lawyers are sending out intimidating lawyer letters to parody websites that are clearly protected by the (US constitution's) First Amendment and fair use," said EFF attorney Fred von Lohmann.
"It's time for Barney to call off his lawyer armies and get back to entertaining children."
August 24, 2006
Voice of America
"You've Got Trouble: America Online's Big Mistake With Search Data"
How much information can people learn about you by seeing what you look for on the Internet? Too much, say some people with Internet service from America Online...
The World Privacy Forum and the Electronic Frontier Foundation want the Federal Trade Commission to punish AOL. Both groups say the company violated its privacy agreement with its millions of customers.
August 24, 2006
Internetnews.com
"EFF's Next Fight? Barney the Dinosaur"
By Ed Sutherland
Online privacy watchdog Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) took a break from battling government spying and corporate misdeeds to charge Barney the Dinosaur with violating a Web site owner's First Amendment rights...
Why today's lawsuit?
"Apparently, Barney's lawyers don't respond to anything else," Fred von Lohmann, EFF's senior intellectual property lawyer, told internetnews.com. Von Lohmann said parody sites are protected by the First Amendment and fair use.
August 24, 2006
Ars Technica
"EFF hopes to make the "obviousness test" more obvious"
By Nate Anderson
Like a snowball rolling downhill, the case of KSR v. Teleflex is growing in size as it progresses. The case will bring the crucial question of "obviousness" in patent law before the Supreme Court, and groups with an interest in patent reform have filed a set of amicus briefs with the Court...
The EFF tells the Supreme Court that "'patent trolls' have realized that, with the nonobviousness standard artificially low, the probability of gaining approval for a patent on an obvious innovation is quite high, especially since it is the PTO examiner who bears the burden of finding the specific 'suggestion' document, not the patent applicant."
August 23, 2006
CNET News
"AT&T sues over unauthorized access to customer data"
By Marguerite Reardon
AT&T has joined the fight to keep unauthorized data brokers from obtaining and selling its customers' calling records...
AT&T is currently a defendant in a privacy lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco over President Bush's domestic spy program. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has accused AT&T of illegally making its network available to the government for security surveillance.
August 23, 2006
ComputerWorld
"EFF: Patent ruling hurts open-source software"
By Grant Gross
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has asked the Supreme Court to overturn a patent ruling, saying the way a lower court views patentable inventions could hurt free and open-source software projects...
"FOSS projects are less of a unified thing than most proprietary software companies," Schultz added. "They are scattered around and it's harder to track people and documents down sometimes."
August 23, 2006
Red Herring
"Patent Scare for Open Source"
The Electronic Frontier Foundation asked the United States Supreme Court on Wednesday to overturn an appeals court patent ruling that could do what Microsoft has so far failed to do: derail the open-source movement...
In its amicus brief, the EFF charged that the "suggestion test" upheld by the court could bog down the open-source movement in defending itself against bogus patent challenges.
August 23, 2006
Associated Press
"AT&T sues data brokers over customer information"
AT&T filed suit Wednesday to identify 25 data brokers who it claims fraudulently obtained phone-calling records for about 2,500 customers without their approval...
While AT&T is the plaintiff in the latest case, it remains a defendant in a privacy lawsuit in San Francisco federal court over its alleged participation in the Bush administration's warrantless domestic spying program. In that suit, the Electronic Frontier Foundation accused AT&T of illegally making communications on its networks available to the government.
August 23, 2006
BusinessWeek
"Fallout from AOL's Flub"
By Catherine Holahan
AOL's inadvertent release of search data on more than 650,000 customers is a stark reminder that online privacy has a price...
In complaints to the Federal Trade Commission, representatives from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the World Privacy Forum (WPF) maintain that many, if not most, computer users would not knowingly use Internet services that store and release potentially revealing search data to the general public, advertisers, or other third parties.
August 22, 2006
ZDNet
"AT&T says cooperation with NSA could be legal"
By Declan McCullagh
An AT&T executive on Tuesday offered a glimpse into how a company could be required to cooperate with a federal entity such as the National Security Agency...
If a letter of certification exists, AT&T could be off the hook in its lawsuits. Federal law says that a "good faith" reliance on a letter of certification "is a complete defense to any civil or criminal" lawsuit, including one brought against the company by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
August 22, 2006
Forbes.com
"Maureen Not Fit To Govern As AOL Tech Chief"
By Parmy Olson
Having joined AOL in September 2005, Maureen Govern was only just getting her feet wet as the Internet service provider's chief of technology when one of the biggest blunders in the company's history took place: a researcher posted the search queries of more than 650,000 AOL subscribers onto a web site...
An industry body, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the charge that AOL failed to protect its subscribers' privacy.
August 22, 2006
Washington Post
"3 Leave AOL Over Security Breach"
By Ellen Nakashima
AOL's chief technology officer is stepping down and the firm has fired two other people following last month's massive data breach that caused more than 36 million member search queries to be released on the Internet, according to an internal memo and a source familiar with the matter...
Kevin Bankston, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said notifying members whose data was posted was "the right thing to do," but AOL should go further and notify as many members as possible whose data was made public.
August 22, 2006
PC World
"Net Watchdog: The Elusive Search for Privacy"
By Tom Spring
AOL's accidental release of the search queries of 650,000 subscribers underscores the growing stakes when it comes to digital privacy. AOL's disastrous mistake is exactly the reason you should be asking yourself whether privacy even can exist in this digital age...
On August 14, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a complaint against AOL with the Federal Trade Commission. The complaint alleges that AOL violated federal laws prohibiting "deceptive trade practices" when it released the search data.
August 21, 2006
USA TODAY
"AOL's tech chief quits after breach of privacy"
By Michelle Kessler and Kevin Maney
AOL's chief technology officer left the company on Monday, two weeks after the division she ran made public the search records of 658,000 customers...
"Rearranging their staff is not going to get at the root of the problem," says Kevin Bankston, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group. AOL and competitors such as Google and Yahoo are "storehousing massive amounts of incredibly sensitive data" without being upfront about how it's being used, he says.
August 21, 2006
New York Times
"AOL Technology Chief Quits After Data Release"
By Tom Zeller, Jr.
AOL announced the resignation of its chief technology officer today, following two weeks of intense criticism from privacy advocates after members of its research staff released hundreds of thousands of its customers' personal Web search queries...
At least two privacy organizations have filed formal complaints against AOL with the Federal Trade Commission.
Kevin Bankston, a lawyer with one of those groups, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital-rights organization based in San Francisco, said AOL's latest moves were unlikely to address the underlying issue.
"Staffing changes aren't going to get to the root of this problem," Mr. Bankston said. "It's a problem that reaches to the whole search industry and not just AOL."
August 21, 2006
San Jose Mercury News
"After privacy breach, AOL executive resigns"
By Elise Ackerman
AOL announced Monday the resignation of its chief technology officer, Maureen Govern, less than three weeks after her division exposed the detailed search histories of more than a half a million AOL users on a public Web site...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties organization, has asked the Federal Trade Commission to sanction AOL for unfair and deceptive trade practices.
August 21, 2006
Associated Press
"3 leave AOL in search-data fallout"
By Anick Jesdanunn
AOL's chief technology officer left the company and two other workers were fired in the aftermath of a privacy breach that involved the intentional release of more than 650,000 subscribers' Internet search terms...
Kevin Bankston, staff attorney with the EFF, said he hoped the breach would prompt Internet companies to be more forthcoming about what data they keep and for how long. Congress, he said, may need to intervene.
"Rearranging personnel is not going to get to the root of this problem, a problem which extends far beyond AOL and to the rest of the Internet industry," Bankston said. "As an industry, the search engines have been unacceptably tightlipped about what their practices are regarding search logs."
August 21, 2006
New York Times
Editorial: "Enter Search Term Here, Forever"
When people search the Internet in their homes, it feels like a private activity...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a complaint against AOL, arguing that the recent well-publicized release of search data from 600,000 AOL customers was a deceptive trade practice. The commission should uphold the complaint, and send a clear message that invasions of privacy of this sort will be punished.
August 21, 2006
Wired News
"Privacy Debacle Hall of Fame"
By Annalee Newitz
Earlier this month AOL publicly released a data trove: 500,000 search queries culled from three months of user traffic on its search engine... This may have been one of the dumbest privacy debacles of all time, but it certainly wasn't the first...
In May, two teenagers stole a laptop from the Department of Veterans Affairs that contained financial information on more than 25 million veterans, as well as people on active duty. Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Kurt Opsahl said this is one of the worst data breaches in recent memory because of its sheer scale.
August 21, 2006
Miami Herald
"AOL and the 'free' Internet"
By Edward Wasserman
America Online, the aging Internet pioneer better known as AOL, has given new meaning to its name by unthinkingly putting some 658,000 Americans online in ways they neither sought nor welcomed...
''These logs represent the most secret hopes, deepest fears and dirtiest laundry of every user,'' as Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a Wall Street Journal online discussion. "They provide a snapshot of incredibly intimate events and ideas, often revealing personal problems, financial difficulties, medical ailments, sexual preferences and more.''
August 19, 2006
San Jose Mercury News
"What do Google, Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft's MSN know about you?"
By Elise Ackerman
America's top four Internet companies, Google, Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft's MSN, promise they will protect the personal information of people who use their online services to search, shop and socialize...
"If these companies can't give definitive answers about how they are handling this incredibly sensitive and private information, Congress needs to demand answers from them,'' said Kevin Bankston, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group that has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate AOL's disclosure of search records.
August 18, 2006
BBC News
"Film piracy: Is it theft?"
We tracked down the two most powerful voices on either side of the divide and asked them about their own philosophies, and what they thought of their opponent...
In the red corner: John Perry Barlow, lyricist in the US band The Grateful Dead. More pertinently, he went on to co-found the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the pressure group that's placed itself centre-stage in the fight to keep the digital copyright cops at bay.
August 18, 2006
NPR
"Tips for Protecting Privacy Online"
Last week, Internet company AOL posted the Web searches of more than half a million of its members. Kevin Bankston, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, talks about guarding privacy and where personal information can be found online.
August 18, 2006
San Jose Mercury News
"Wiretap program is ruled illegal"
By Ron Hutcheson and Margaret Talev
In a scathing rebuke, a federal judge ruled Thursday that the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping program is unconstitutional and should be shut down, but legal scholars said the administration has a good chance of reversing the decision on appeal...
"We now have a ruling which shows what we've been saying all along, that the wiretapping program violates the Constitution and the statutes,'' said Kurt Opsahl, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, a digital-rights group that brought a class-action suit against AT&T.
August 18, 2006
Business Week
"Wiretap Ruling Threatens Telecoms"
By Catherine Holahan and Dawn Kopecki
Telecommunications and Internet companies accused of working with the Bush Administration's domestic eavesdropping program could be in for more legal headaches, after a federal judge ruled Thursday that the warrantless wiretaps violated the constitution...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a nonprofit advocacy group for digital rights, said the ACLU's victory strengthens the EFF's own case against AT&T, which is taking place in the U.S District Court for the Northern District of California. The federal government and others have tried to get that case and related lawsuits dismissed, based largely on arguments that laws prohibiting the disclosure of state secrets override all other legal claims.
August 18, 2006
Washington Post
"Judge Rules Against Wiretaps"
By Dan Eggen and Dafna Linzer
A federal judge in Detroit ruled yesterday that the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program is unconstitutional, delivering the first decision that the Bush administration's effort to monitor communications without court oversight runs afoul of the Bill of Rights and federal law...
"We now have a ruling on the books that upholds what we've been saying all along: that this wiretapping program violates the Constitution," said Kevin Bankston, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, which has filed a class-action case against AT&T.
August 17, 2006
Washington Post
"AOL Search Queries Open Window Onto Users' Worlds"
By Ellen Nakashima
Out of more than 36 million search queries that hundreds of thousands of AOL users typed into AOL's Internet search engine from March to May, here is the term most queried: Google...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation this week filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission alleging that AOL violated its privacy policy and deceived users about how their data were being used. The San Francisco advocacy group provided examples of search strings containing sensitive personal terms that could be linked to individuals.
August 16, 2006
ComputerWorld
"Will AOL step up and be responsible?"
By Jerri Ledford
Looks like AOL's playing the ostrich—hiding it's head in the sand, hoping the problem will go away...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) thinks that the company should be forced to notify users and to provide credit reporting services for a year. That's a pretty good idea, but I think that, like the VA, AOL will find a way not to go to the expense. And that's a pretty disturbing thought. Not because it's not being done nearly as much as because it's another instance of a major data breach that's going un-punished.
August 15, 2006
Podtech.Network
"Don't Spill Cookies, and Other Search Privacy No-no's"
The posting of some 19 million searches by 658,000 AOL subscribers—an information spill being likened to Exxon's Valdez accident—has civil liberties groups seeking legal action and senators pushing legislation to secure users' privacy. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group that advocates for "digital rights" on the Internet, filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission Monday, urging the FTC to investigate AOL's privacy protections. EFF Staff Technologist Seth Schoen speaks with PodTech's Catherine Girardeau about the complaint, and about how search users can protect their personal information.
August 15, 2006
MacWorld
"EFF complains to FTC about AOL's search records release"
By Juan Carlos Perez
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is asking the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to force AOL to help the people whose search records it recently released.
In a complaint filed Monday, the EFF requests that the FTC investigate the incident and have AOL notify, via electronic and postal mail, all affected persons that their search results were released
August 15, 2006
Fremont Argus
Editorial: "Brave judge overrules government secrecy"
By Nat Hentoff
At last, a federal judge has refused to automatically, reverentially bow to a Bush administration lawyer demanding a case be shut down without being heard because it involves "state secrets." The Electronic Frontier Foundation had filed a suit against AT&T claiming the company "has given the National Security Agency secret, direct access to phone calls and e-mails—handing over communications logs detailing the activities of millions of ordinary Americans."
August 15, 2006
ZDNet
"E-mail security hero takes on VoIP"
By Declan McCullagh
Phil Zimmermann gave free e-mail encryption to the world more than a decade ago in the form of software called Pretty Good Privacy...
Seth Schoen, staff technologist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, calls end-to-end encryption "very desirable."
"It takes intermediaries out of the picture in determining whether your communications are secure," Schoen said. "By analogy, it has fewer moving parts and fewer things that can go wrong. Or if you prefer, fewer entities that can betray your privacy."
August 15, 2006
Wall Street Journal
"Internet Privacy Group Files Complaint Against AOL"
By Ellen Nakashima
The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a complaint yesterday asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate AOL and require strengthening of its privacy protections after the Dulles-based firm recently released 20 million search records of 658,000 AOL users.
August 15, 2006
Washington Post Online
"Should Web Search Data Be Stored?"
Should Internet companies store search queries? Are new laws or closer oversight of the industry warranted? The Wall Street Journal Online invited Kevin Bankston, a lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy rights group, to debate the issue with Markham Erickson, executive director of NetCoalition, a lobby group for Internet firms including Google and Yahoo.
August 15, 2006
Editor and Publisher
"Who Let the Blogs Out? Legal Experts Offer Tips on Avoiding Trouble"
By Steve Yahn and Jake Whitney
The race into the blogosphere has reached a feverish pace...
One of the few surviving stanchions of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, Section 230 holds that "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), one of Section 230's most ardent proponents, says it "preempts any state laws to the contrary."
August 14, 2006
Associated Press
"AOL's release of search requests trigger demand for FTC inquiry"
By Michael Liedtke
Hoping to trigger a federal investigation, a civil liberties group accused AOL of breaking a promise to protect its subscribers' privacy when the Time Warner subsidiary recently released millions of Internet search requests—data that touched upon everything from Social Security numbers to murder plots.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a Federal Trade Commission complaint Monday, a week after AOL apologized for posting about 19 million search requests made by about 658,000 subscribers during a three-month period ending in May.
August 14, 2006
MediaPost
"More FCC Woes For XM"
By Erik Sass
In another blow for XM Satellite Radio, the broadcaster announced last week that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is asking for more electronic "emissions" data on a series of new radios the company planned to introduce this summer...
However, the prospects of the RIAA lawsuit against XM are unclear, according to Fred von Lohmann, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. Lohmann said the RIAA's case is "a stretch," especially in light of the Audio Home Recording Act. "As far as I know, every one of these devices was designed to conform to the AHRA," Lohmann said.
August 14, 2006
Washington Times
Editorial: "An expansive view of 'state secrets'"
By Nat Hentoff
When the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco filed suit against AT&T for, it said, giving the National Security Agency "secret, direct access to phone calls and e-mail ... detailing the activities of millions of ordinary Americans," the Justice Department went to the judge, as it often has in such cases, insisting the lawsuit not be heard because it involves "state secrets."
Federal District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco'pointing to the continuing, widespread public controversy over the president secretly authorizing the NSA's warrantless disregard of individual privacy rights'ruled that there was no urgent state need for secrecy.
If there is a future book of judges' profiles in courage'and there should be'Judge Walker would be an inspirational choice for inclusion.
August 12, 2006
New York Times
"Your Life as an Open Book"
By Tom Zeller, Jr.
Privacy advocates and search industry watchers have long warned that the vast and valuable stores of data collected by search engine companies could be vulnerable to thieves, rogue employees, mishaps or even government subpoenas...
This is a discussion that we as a society need to have, said Kevin Bankston, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a rights organization based in San Francisco. Mr. Bankstons group, which is spearheading a class-action lawsuit against AT&T for sharing consumer phone records with the National Security Agency, issued an alert this week calling the AOL incident a Data Valdez, asserting that it may be in violation of the Electronic Communications and Privacy Act, which regulates some forms of online communications.
August 12, 2006
AFP
"PCs still changing the world at 25 years old"
Personal computers have transformed society in a mere 25 years and they are just getting warmed up...
"It has made a stunning difference in people's lives," Electronic Frontier Foundation legal director Cindy Cohn told AFP. "And we are still in the early stages of this stuff.
"We will see a big leap when wireless is ubiquitous. Things you and I couldn't dream of."
August 11, 2006
Washington Post: Security Fix Blog
"Defcon 14 Wrapup, at Long Last"
By Brian Krebs
I threw a few softballs wide of the mark at the Defcon dunk tank, which ultimately raised $3,686 for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. (Defcon founder Jeff Moss later rounded that figure up to a cool $7,500). A fundraising party at the conference also raised another $2,306 for the foundation.
August 11, 2006
DailyTech
"Electronic Frontier Foundation Goes After AOL"
By Tuan Nguyen
The Electronic Frontier Foundation this week announced an action plan for those exposed by AOL's recent disclosure of user search histories. The EFF is responsible for defending many people and companies against circumstances such as this one or in other cases against lawsuits.
August 11, 2006
ZDNet
"A must read document that cuts the RIAA down to size"
By David Berlind
If you're like me and you're worried about the way that entertainment industry is using Digital Rights Management technology, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, its lobbyists, and its lawyers to checkmate innocent people into paying copyright infringement fines that are easier to pay for than what a legal defense would cost them, here is a must read amicus curiae brief that was filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union (the ACLU), and the American Association of Law Libraries in the case of Capitol Records v. Debbie Foster.
August 11, 2006
The New Standard
"Govt. Joins Net Treaty That May Limit Rights in U.S., Overseas"
By Shreema Mehta
The US Senate last week ratified a treaty requiring participating countries to share citizens' personal digital data and aid each others' criminal investigations, an arrangement privacy advocates say will amount to increasing surveillance of Internet users and the enforcement of foreign laws in the United States...
The treaty, designed to help coordinate criminal investigations that may often cross national borders, will loosen privacy laws in European countries to the level of the US, said Danny O'Brien, a coordinator with the electronic privacy advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Advocates say the US does not have a proper "framework" of privacy protection laws like the European Union's data protection directive.
"Harmonization is often the excuse to ratchet up the powers of law enforcement," O'Brien said.
August 10, 2006
InformationWeek
"Phone-Spying Cases Move To One Court"
By KC Jones
A judicial panel has ordered that the class action cases alleging that telecommunications companies violated customer privacy rules by cooperating with federal surveillance programs will be heard in one court...
EFF attorney Kevin Bankston said during an interview Wednesday that he believed the cases would be consolidated...
EFF attorney Kevin Bankston said during an interview Wednesday that he believed the cases would be consolidated.
August 10, 2006
San Jose Mercury News
"Federal eavesdropping cases to be consolidated in S.F."
By Pete Carey
A federal panel is transferring 17 class-action lawsuits against telecommunications companies that allegedly cooperated with a warrantless government eavesdropping program to a San Francisco federal judge's courtroom...
Walker already is presiding over a class-action suit brought against AT&T by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and four related cases.
August 10, 2006
AFP
"Judge puts US phone spying case on hold"
A federal judge on Tuesday put on hold a domestic spying lawsuit against AT&T to allow time to consolidate dozens of such pending cases against telecom companies in a single US court...
"It is a situation where neither side got exactly what they were asking for going in," EFF attorney Kurt Opsahl said. "We certainly wanted to get going on things."
August 8, 2006
Reuters
"Judge delays review of AT&T spying lawsuit"
A federal judge temporarily halted on Tuesday further review of a lawsuit charging AT&T illegally allowed the U.S. government to monitor phone and e-mail communications.
Earlier this year the privacy rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation sued the telecommunications firm, saying the U.S. program eavesdrops on phone calls and reads e-mails of millions of Americans without warrants.
August 7, 2006
TechNewsWorld
"Hacker Cracks, Clones RFID Passport"
By Jay Lyman
The wireless data transfer capabilities of radio frequency identification (RFID) tag are intended to speed and assist transactions, but it appears the RFID chips of new U.S. passports are speeding and assisting circumvention, according to a German expert's demonstration at last week's Black Hat hacker conference in Las Vegas...
"One of the difficult things about this technology is it's got an inherent privacy and security risk to it," Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien told TechNewsWorld. "The whole idea of having your information broadcast or transmitted via radio waves is something that creates privacy and security risk."
August 7, 2006
MarketWatch
"AOL 'mistakenly' releases member Web-search data"
AOL Inc. said it mistakenly released data about the Web-search habits of more than 650,000 AOL members, in a move that infuriated online-privacy advocates, inflamed Internet pundits and enthralled the online-marketing world Monday...
"I'm gratified that they understand this was a mistake," said Kurt Opsahl, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online privacy advocate. "But once the information is out there it stays out there. The horse is out of the barn."
August 7, 2006
Gainsville Sun
"Music industry lawsuits against file sharing questioned"
By Lise Fisher
File sharing hasn't stopped among computer users and neither have lawsuits aimed nationwide at thousands of individuals accused of illegally downloading songs...
Lawsuits haven't solved the problem with alleged illegal downloading, said Rebecca Jeschke with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization defending digital rights. "We're not seeing a decrease in file sharing," she said. "What happens with these lawsuits is that people get singled out."
August 7, 2006
InfoWorld
"Critics clash over Cybercrime Convention"
Cybercriminals are getting smarter, and their exploit are costing the U.S. billions of dollars—$67 billion at last count. Thus, perhaps the Senate's decision to ratify the Council of Europe's Convention on Cybercrime couldn't have come soon enough...
But not everyone is gung-ho about this bill. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has bestowed upon it the unflattering distinction of "World's Worst Internet Law."
August 7, 2006
CNET News
"AOL apologizes for release of user search data"
By Dawn Kawamoto and Elinor Mills
AOL apologized on Monday for releasing search log data on subscribers that had been intended for use with the company's newly launched research site...
Kurt Opsahl, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, pointed to other means to make the information available to the research community without making it open to the public.
"There are ways of conducting research into search technology, without making individuals' search terms public," Opsahl said. "Universities could abide by AOL's privacy laws and various laws for privacy...They could get consent from users before handing out the information to third parties."
August 4, 2006
CNET
"Senate ratifies controversial cybercrime treaty"
By Declan McCullagh and Anne Broache
The first and only international treaty designed exclusively to combat computer crime won approval late Thursday from the U.S. Senate..."Our primary concern is that there's no dual criminality within the mutual assistance provisions," said Danny O'Brien, activism coordinator with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. "The U.S. is now obliged to investigate and monitor French Internet crimes, say, and France is obliged to obey America's requests to spy on its citizens, for instance—even if those citizens are under no suspicion for crimes on the statute books of their own country."
August 4, 2006
Ars Technica
"'World's Worst Internet Law' ratified by Senate"
By Nate Anderson
The US Senate ratified the Convention on Cybercrime last night, paving the way for greater international cooperation on cybersecurity issues...According to the EFF, "The treaty requires that the U.S. government help enforce other countries' 'cybercrime' laws—even if the act being prosecuted is not illegal in the United States. That means that countries that have laws limiting free speech on the Net could oblige the F.B.I. to uncover the identities of anonymous U.S. critics, or monitor their communications on behalf of foreign governments. American ISPs would be obliged to obey other jurisdictions' requests to log their users' behavior without due process, or compensation."
August 3, 2006
Time Magazine
"Blogging All the Way to Jail"
By Laura Locke
Before there was YouTube's crush of do-it-yourself video online, Josh Wolf was busy taking media into his own hands...The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit that advocates for the public interest and digital rights, is more pointed by suggesting that do-it-yourself media creators should use technology to help conceal their real identities online.
August 1, 2006
TechWeb
"AT&T Appeals To End Spy Suit"
By KC Jones
AT&T is appealing a judge's decision to move forward with a case alleging the company acted illegally by helping the National Security Agency (NSA) with surveillance.The Electronic Frontier Foundation sued AT&T on behalf of customers in February, claming that the telecommunications company provided the NSA direct access to massive amounts of customer data. The lawsuit includes testimony from former AT&T employees who describe secret and secure facilities where wires sent duplicate data to federal investigators.
