Geofence and reverse keyword warrants are some of the most dangerous, civil-liberties-infringing and reviled tools in law enforcement agencies’ digital toolbox. It turns out that these warrants are so invasive of user privacy that big tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo are willing to support banning...
California residents finally have a law designed to dismantle some of the secrecy around domestic acquisitions of warzone surveillance equipment.The weapons of the United States military—drones, mobile command centers, sound cannons, and more—have been handed off to local law enforcement for years. The transfers have equipped police departments with the...
A constitutionally problematic Texas law limiting social media companies exercising their First Amendment rights to curate the content they carry can go into effect after a federal appeals court lifted a lower court’s injunction blocking it. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit,...
The executive body of the European Union published today a legislative proposal (text) that, if it became law, would be a disaster for online privacy in the EU and throughout the world. In the name of fighting crimes against children, the EU Commission has suggested new rules that...
Copyright law and free expression have always been in tension, with the courts protecting speech from overzealous copyright claims using legal doctrines such as fair use. But in 1998, Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and since then courts have interpreted its “anti-circumvention” provision to give rightsholders the unprecedented...
The ad identifier - aka “IDFA” on iOS, or “AAID” on Android - is the key that enables most third-party tracking on mobile devices. Disabling it will make it substantially harder for advertisers and data brokers to track and profile you, and will limit the amount of your personal information...
El creciente riesgo de que el Tribunal Supremo anule las protecciones constitucionales federales contra el aborto ha vuelto a centrar la atención en el papel que desempeñan los proveedores de servicios digitales de todo tipo a la hora de facilitar el acceso a la información, la educación y la atención...
La EFF apoya la privacidad de los datos para todos, y eso incluye a las personas que buscan atención médica reproductiva. Incluso antes de que se filtrara el borrador de la decisión del Tribunal Supremo sobre el caso Roe v. Wade, la EFF estaba comprometida con los defensores de la...
EFF members have joined forces to fight for civil liberties and human rights online for over 30 years. Our movement has never been an easy one, but the future of technology depends on our determination.
Computer scientists often build algorithms with a keen focus on “solving the problem,” without considering the larger implications and potential misuses of the technology they’re creating. That’s how we wind up with machine learning that prevents qualified job applicants from advancing, or blocks mortgage applicants from buying homes, or creates...
En preparación para lo que pueden ser los últimos días del juicio de Ola Bini, un desarrollador de software libre y de código abierto detenido poco después de la expulsión de Julian Assange de la Embajada de Ecuador en Londres, las organizaciones de la sociedad civil que observan el...
EFF, along with many other organizations, has loudly sounded the alarm about data brokers and the myriad ways they can collect data on unsuspecting users, as well as thenumerousdangers of public-private surveillance partnerships. One of the companies that has sometimes flown under the radar,...
On Tuesday, Motherboard reported that data broker SafeGraph was selling location information “related to visits to clinics that provide abortions including Planned Parenthood facilities.” This included where people came from and where they went afterwards.In response, SafeGraph agreed to stop selling data about Planned Parenthood visitors. But it...