In The News: August, 2009
Today's Burning Man: Anarchy? Not so much
By Phil Bronstein, San Francisco Chronicle
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco digital-rights nonprofit group that includes a lot of "burners" among its members, accused Burning Man of "fast and easy online censorship." Burning Man's Andie Grace fired back that the foundation's hit was "a startling disappointment" coming from a fellow traveler counterculture group, as both organizations are Bay Area-bred and dedicated to free expression. Burning Man is just trying to protect privacy and counter "the creep of ... commercialist wolves," she insisted.
It's like a battle between two giant, fluffy, white do-good rabbits. But this is serious business.
Editorial: Speak up for anonymity
Baltimore Sun
Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group that defends citizens' rights on the Internet, is fighting the Bush administration-era warrantless wiretapping, seeking the release of FBI surveillance rules, and investigating the Google Book Search settlement, which threatens to strip away the privacy and anonymity of readers everywhere. These are the cases that Ms. Cohen's lawsuit should bring to the forefront. They illustrate how precious our privacy is, and why we should fight for it, while also underlining that we must keep in mind what's good for the people and the safety of all.
Google Books is Privacy Battle's New Frontier
By Gerald Helguer, International Business Times
"They have this argument that they haven't built the product yet, well that's fine. Your policy on disclosure doesn't turn on the product," says Cindy Cohn, chief attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit online rights group.
Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin Says Trust Us With Your Personal Information
By Laura Sydell, NPR
That isn't enough for Cindy Cohn, a staff attorney at the online civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation. She doesn't doubt Brin's sincerity. But, Cohen says, "Even if you believe that the Google of today would never, ever do the wrong, I don't think it's wise to assume that the Google of tomorrow will be the same."
Cohen says EFF wants Google to put in writing terms for privacy around its Google book searches.
Judge Won't Lower $5M Bail for SF IT Administrator
By Robert McMillan, PC World
But California's law was designed to prosecute people who break into computers, not those engaged in workplace disputes, said Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In Childs' case, his bosses asked him to hand over a password and he refused to do it, she said. "I don't think the California legislature contemplated that as a criminal action when they passed [the state's computer crime law]."
"This interpretation of the statute basically criminalizes certain types of commercial and employment disputes," she said.
Bill would give president emergency control of Internet
By Declan McCullagh, CNET News
The privacy implications of sweeping changes implemented before the legal review is finished worry Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. "As soon as you're saying that the federal government is going to be exercising this kind of power over private networks, it's going to be a really big issue," he says.
Gov't tightens oversight of laptop border searches
Associated Press
Marcia Hofmann, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a ditigal civil rights advocacy group, said in an interview the new rules are an improvement. But they don't go far enough, she said.
She said travelers should be told if information is copied from their devices. The new directive states that federal agents must tell travelers if they are looking at their property. But if officials copy the hard drive during this search, the traveler will not know.
"I don't think that's the way to go," Hofmann said.
Michigan State University: Serious Student Complaints = Spam
By Greg Lukianoff, Huffington Post
After the intervention of FIRE and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, along with the support of eleven other civil liberties organizations, MSU withdrew the charges against Kara and promised to reform its spam policy. Unfortunately, the university has put in its place a new spam policy that is not much of an improvement.
Hey Flickr ... why so censorious?
By Helen A.S. Popkin, MSNBC
Now comes the part where we all start cryin’ “free speech” and “censorship” and la, la, la …but guess what, kids? It’s Flickr’s ball and the law says Flickr gets to make the rules. Matt Zimmerman, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, digital civil rights advocates, confirms the law favors Flickr. “It actually implicates the First Amendment rights of who's running the forum,” he said.
Fashion blogger's Google suit seen as weak
By James Temple, San Francisco Chronicle
Matt Zimmerman, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, has voiced many of these concerns himself, but he, too, doesn't see a valid legal argument for Port.
That said, he and other privacy advocates do worry about the legal precedent established, given the growing number of what are known as CyberSLAPP lawsuits. In such cases, targets of anonymous criticism file suits, often frivolous, just so they can issue a subpoena to a Web site or Internet service provider to uncover the identity of the authors and intimidate, embarrass or silence them. Cohen, in fact, has dropped her subsequent defamation suit, according to the New York Post.
"The notion that you can use the court as your personal private investigator to out anonymous critics is a dangerous precedent to set," Zimmerman said. "I think the practical impact (of the Cohen case) is that litigious people will see this as a green light to try to out critics."
DHS Clarifies Laptop Border Searches
By Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek
Marcia Hofmann, staff attorney at the EFF, says the new directives appear to be largely the same as past policy, although they do provide welcome specificity about border search procedures. "For example, the July 2008 border search policy issued by CBP said that agents could detain devices or copies for a 'reasonable period of time to perform a thorough border search,' but it wasn't clear what a 'reasonable period of time' was," she explained in an e-mail. "The new directives specify actual time lines, which is a positive change."
U.S. unveils new rules on border searches of laptops
Reuters
Privacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation have pushed Congress to stop border officers from searching laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices without probable cause when people enter or return to the country.
Dealing With The Secret Government
By Christopher Hayes, The Nation
In these and other cases, however, the White House is fighting outside groups like the ACLU, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which it can try to stonewall in the courts with relatively little press attention.
High-Tech Tug of War Over iPhone
By Eriq Gardner, IP Law & Business
The Electronic Frontier Foundation sought the exemption, staff attorney Fred von Lohmann says, because it believes Apple is exploiting copyright laws to protect its business interests and those of its iPhone partner, AT&T. By deciding whether entrepreneurs like Arlo Gilbert get access to the iPhone platform, von Lohmann says, Apple can stymie innovation for reasons totally unconnected to copyright. He likens it to giving automakers the power to decide who can fix cars. "Sure, GM might tell us that for your own safety, all servicing should be done by an authorized GM dealer using only genuine GM parts," he says. "But we'd never accept this corporate paternalism as a justification for welding every car hood shut and imposing legal liability on car buffs tinkering in their garages."
ACLU sues for information on laptop searches at U.S. borders
By Jaikumar Vijayan, Computerworld
Today's lawsuit is not the first time the DHS has been pressed for more information on its policies relating to border laptop searches. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Asian Law Caucus had filed a similar FOIA lawsuit in February 2008, in which they had sought similar data from the CBP.
In response to that lawsuit, the CBP released about 600 pages worth of information on its policies relating to border laptop searches, said Marcia Hoffman, an attorney for EFF. (The documents are available on EFF's site.)
"It gave us some insight into their policies and procedures around border searches," Hoffman said. What the documents showed was that until fairly recently DHS had not thought about how policies covering other forms of searches applied to digital information, she said. Following the EFF and Asian Law Caucus lawsuit, the CBP also published a formal note describing its policy regarding border searches.
Google Maps Now Shows Live Traffic Reports For Back Roads
By Clint Boulton, eWeek
The problem with the location-based services is that it affects a skittishness in people. Concepts like location-based services that send "bits of data back to Google" tend to make people nervous. Electronic Frontier Foundation has a great report on the intersection of location services and privacy.
'Skanks' case over Google's release of e-mail address tests limits of bloggers' anonymity
By David Lieberman, USA TODAY
"As opposed to 20 years ago, everyone’s moving online the general discussion that they’d have had with their friends in the lunchroom," says Electronic Frontier Foundation senior staff attorney Matt Zimmerman. "Are we really saying that it’s the job of the courts to monitor these kinds of tit-for-tat, silly, pointless insults?"
Real Estate Developer Seeks To Unmask Anonymous Commenters
By Wendy Davis, Mediapost
EFF attorney Matt Zimmerman says the developer is targeting people "solely based on their critical speech and nothing else." He adds that the developer has no reason to think that any of the Web commenters are involved in the lawsuit. "This would be like going into the neighborhood that is affected by this development project and subpoenaing every resident because -- who knows? -- maybe the resident might have information relevant to their case," he says.
The coming-out stories of anonymous bloggers
By John D. Sutter, CNN.com
Matt Zimmerman, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which advocates for the rights of anonymous speech, said there are tools people can use to try to hide their footprints online. But none is 100 percent effective, he said.
That leaves some online writers who use pseudonyms in the stressful situation of not knowing if or when their real names will be revealed.
"Skank case" precedent worries privacy groups
James Temple, San Francisco Chronicle
Matt Zimmerman, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, said of the Cohen case:
"The notion that you can use the court as your personal private investigator to out anonymous critics is a dangerous precedent to set. This doesn't change the rules ... but I think the practical impact is that litigious people will see this as a green light to try to out critics. It's one of those bad facts make bad law cases. The court looked at the type of statements being made and the person wasn't engaging in very defensive behavior and unfortunately that affected the court's outcome. ... What the court was reacting to was what was more sympathetic, which was the plaintiff."
Classification Comments from Public?
By Aliya Sternstein, Nextgov
The co-signers of the Aug. 1 request include representatives from OpenTheGovernment.org, Federation of American Scientists, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Tech giants unite against Google
By Maggie Shiels , BBC News
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the ACLU of Northern California and the Consumer Watchdog advocacy group wrote to Google to ask the company to "assure Americans that Google will maintain the security and freedom that library patrons have long had: to read and learn about anything... without worrying that someone is looking over their shoulder or could retrace their steps".
“Your Papers, Please!”
By Becky Akers, The New American
Rather, organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (which “defend[s] your rights in the digital world”) led the charge. Joining them were the governors of various states in a nigh revolutionary stand-off with the feds.
In the pursuit of easy money
By Thomas Levenson, Telegraph
There is another approach to digital security: “fingerprinting” the machines that make modern counterfeiting so tempting. The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports that US authorities have succeeded in getting some colour laser printer makers to digitally label each page their printers produce. The privacy concerns are obvious: these machines do not know if a document is a forged banknote or a love letter.
Miami Man Charged In Major Identity Theft Case
By Ari Shapiro, NPR
This attack is three times that size. Jennifer Granick of the Electronic Frontier Foundation says this is clearly a growing problem.
Ms. JENNIFER GRANICK (Electronic Frontier Foundation): And I think one of the causes of the problem is that companies have not being careful about creating these treasure troves of customer information.
Law and disorder in cyberspace
By Cyrus Farivar, PRI's The World
FARIVAR: That’s just one problem. Peter Eckersley can think of others. He’s with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a tech advocacy group in San Francisco.
PETER ECKERSLEY: There’s a hugely complicated ethical problem about vigilantism as a response. Sure these researchers that you’ve mentioned in Germany may be genuinely well-intentioned and may genuinely have found a flaw in one particular botnet that they think they can use to shut the botnet down but who watches the vigilantes? How do we know that parties like that are actually making the situation better and even have the public’s interest at heart?
Op-Ed: Lawless Surveillance, Warrantless Rationales
By Cindy Cohn, American Constitution Society
Both former NSA Director Michael Hayden and former Justice Department attorney John Yoo have taken to the editorial pages of major national newspapers this summer to defend the so-called Presidential Surveillance Program, the still-shadowy set of programs that spy on Americans in America without any probable cause or warrant. This campaign to sway public opinion is ongoing because neither the past Bush officials nor the current Obama administration officials dare to defend their illegal activities on the merits in a court of law.
Obama Joker artist unmasked: A fellow Chicagoan
By Mark Milan, Los Angeles Times
"You really want to think twice about going after a political commenter," said Corynne McSherry, a senior staff attorney at the EFF. In Time's case, "a news organization probably doesn't want to be in the situation of pursuing political criticism."
EFF on Locational Privacy
By Bruce Schneier, Schneier on Security
Excellent paper: "On Locational Privacy, and How to Avoid Losing it Forever."
Obama's cookies may not go down so easy
By Robert X. Cringely, San Francisco Chronicle
For example: The CDT/EFF say Uncle Sam should only use the data for measuring Web site performance and not share it with third parties. They want the feds to nuke the data after 90 days, disclose the use of tracking cookies to all Web site users, let them opt out without penalty, and have an inspector general or other third party verify they're following the rules.
Can Fans Be Banned From Posting On Facebook?
By Wendy Davis, Mediapost
Among other conditions, ticket purchasers must agree to assign the copyright in their photos or videos to Burning Man, the Electronic Frontier Foundation reports. Audience members also must agree to refrain from using Burning Man trademarks online -- which means they can't label photos or videos with the words "Burning Man," the EFF reports.
RealNetworks court loss a reminder about limits of "fair use"
By Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica
As pointed out by the EFF, this doesn't spell good things for Real or anyone else looking to enter into the market, even if Real decides to appeal. "[G]iven the pace of the federal appeals process, this means that the RealDVD products will likely stay off the market for at least a year," wrote EFF staff attorney Fred von Lohmann.
Kaleidescape loses; DVD copying falls again
By Greg Sandoval, CNET News
Fred von Lohmann, senior attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group for Internet users and technology firms, said late Tuesday evening that Patel's decision is a setback for innovators and consumers.
"This is yet another example of the way the DMCA harms innovation without doing anything to stop what the studios call piracy," von Lohmann said. "This enables the studios to take consumers' fair use rights and sell them back to them one DVD at a time.
“What Are you Doing,” Soon to be “Where are You?”
KPCC
A new report out by the Electronic Frontier Foundation says it’s up to the programmers to start respecting our privacy and stop collecting and storing this information. We hear from a co-author of EFF’s report and a privacy officer from a programming company
Google Deal With Publishers Raises Privacy Concerns
By Martin Kaste, NPR
Lethem is one of several authors — including Michael Chabon and Cory Doctorow — who have signed on to a campaign to pressure Google Books to offer greater privacy guarantees for its readers. The effort was organized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
"They know which books you search for," says Cindy Cohn, legal director for the foundation. "They know which books you browse through; they know how long you spend on each page."
Are Your Privacy Rights in Danger?
By Bret Baier, Fox News
Cindy Cohn, the legal director at the online rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, says: "It appears that these companies are forcing the government to lower the privacy protections that the government had promised the American people."
Judge Rules DVD-Copying Software Is Illegal
By David Kravets, Wired News
“These seem to be contradicting points,” said Fred von Lohmann, a copyright attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group based in San Francisco.
U.S. Web-Tracking Plan Stirs Privacy Fears
By Spencer S. Hsu and Cecilia Kang, Washington Post
Cindy Cohn, legal director for Electronic Frontier Foundation, called the contract "troubling."
"It appears that these companies are forcing the government to lower the privacy protections that the government had promised the American people," Cohn said. "The government should be requiring companies to raise the level of privacy protection if they want government contracts."
Locational Privacy: The EFF Weighs in on Safeguarding Your Location
By Brady Forrest|, O'Reilly Radar
The EFF has weighed in on this trend with a timely whitepaper: On Location Privacy and How to Avoid Losing It Forever. The paper includes a number of scenarios with actionable solutions and a number of reason why companies should care.
Privacy Plan for Federal Web Sites Gets Mixed Reviews
By Miguel Helft, New York Times
Meanwhile other privacy advocates, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Democracy and Technology, gave the proposed changes a warmer reception. In comments filed jointly, the two groups said that the principles proposed by the government “form a solid foundation to govern the use of tracking technologies.” But the groups also suggested various additions, including better disclosure of the mechanisms used to track individuals, to the proposed policies.
Privacy Researchers Push for Location Services Protected By Cryptography
By Clint Boulton, eWeek
In a whitepaper, "On Locational Privacy, and How to Avoid Losing it Forever," Peter Eckersley, staff technologist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Andrew Blumberg, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, argue that modern cryptography allows data processing systems to be designed with privacy policies ranging from limited to complete anonymity.
Twitter attack may have been tech warfare
Andrew S. Ross, San Francisco Chronicle
Recommended reading for those taking up arms on behalf of the former might be the Electronic Frontier Foundation's "Practical Guide to Internet Technology for Political Activists in Repressive Regimes." Observing that "governments have also used the Internet to track, harass and undermine," the San Francisco organization warns activists to consider the risks as well as the rewards in using the enabling technologies.
Dobbs pushes debunked Cars.gov claim to accuse admin. of being "authoritarian regime in waiting"
Media Matters
In fact, PolitiFact.com and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have debunked the claim that would-be car consumers who go to the Cars.gov website would have their computers taken over by the government.
Technology Can Help In The Absence of Privacy Laws
Nancy Gohring, IDG News, Industry Standard
A summary of Jennifer Granick's keynote talk at Privacy Enhancing Technology Symposium 2009, in which she issued a Call to Action for technologists to create simple-to-use tools to help citizens protect the privacy of their email, location and identity, areas where legal protections may be inadequate.
Modder Arrest a Reminder That Most Console Hacks are Illegal
Ben Kuchera, Ars Technica
Ars Technica talks to Jennifer Granick about the legality of console modding under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Digitized Stalking Is the New World Order
By David Kravets, Wired News
You’re being followed. Stalkers are everywhere, even in your pocket.
That’s the warning Wednesday from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the San Francisco-based civil liberties group.
New Fox Conspiracy: Cash for Clunkers Will Allow Gov’t To Seize ‘All Of Your Personal and Private Information'
By Zaid Jilani, Think Progress
Guilfoyle may be worried about the “Terms of Service” on a government site. But as Hugh D’Andrade at the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes, these agreements do not give the government the right to tap into your system “any time they want.” “Moreover, the law has long forbidden the government from requiring you to give up unrelated constitutional rights (here the 4th Amendment right to be free from search and seizure) as a condition of receiving discretionary government benefits like participation in the Cars [sic] for Clunkers program,” adds D’Andrade.
The Third World War Will Be Fought Over Information
By Lauren Davis, Io9
Moore plans to sell the posters, with 25% of proceeds going to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Green Apple Books Scores with Kindle Satire
By Wendy Werris, Publishers Weekly
“We’re thrilled with the kind of support we’ve received for the Smackdown videos so far,” said Hunsanger. The first three spots have received thousands of hits since launching last Wednesday, and have already shown up on Boing Boing and the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s website. “They’ve greatly exceeded our hopes, and we have seven more to come over the next week. As satire, the videos are very effective in conveying the message about the Kindle’s presence in the marketplace,” said Hunsanger.
State considers revised mileage-based auto insurance
Central Valley Business Times
The Electronic Frontier Foundation said the regulations would let insurance companies require customers' cars to be outfitted with electronic devices “that could transmit back to the insurance companies all sorts of data about car motion (acceleration, braking, and so forth) as well as driver behavior (steering and seat-belt wearing).”
6 Mods for the Ultimate High-Tech Police Car
By Erik Sofge, Popular Mechanics
“These devices allow for the forensic reconstruction of much of your life,” says Lee Tien, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “The police could go back through GPS data and plate records and know when you visited a strip club or an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, or which political rallies or gun shows you drove to.”
