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Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance

Computer security and the lack of computer security is a fundamental issue that underpins much of how the Internet does (and doesn't) function. Many of the policy issues that EFF works on are linked to security in deep ways including privacy and anonymity, DRM, censorship, and network neutrality.

EFF works directly on a wide range of security issues including increased deployment of cryptographic protocols through projects like Certbot; improving the security of those protocols; offering legal assistance to researchers through our Coders' Rights Project; offering practical security advice to activists through the surveillance self-defense project; and working on the development of new security standards.

Security Highlights

vintage keys in a web of nodes

Encrypting the Web

The web has largely switched from non-secure HTTP to the more secure HTTPS protocol. All web servers use one of these two protocols to get web pages from the server to your browser. HTTP has serious problems that make it vulnerable to eavesdropping and content hijacking. HTTPS fixes most of...

Coders' Rights Project

EFF's Coders' Rights Project protects programmers and developers engaged in cutting-edge exploration of technology. Security and encryption researchers help build a safer future for all of us using digital technologies, but too many legitimate researchers face serious legal challenges that prevent or inhibit their work. These challenges come from laws...

Security Updates

Surveillance Battles: 2017 in Review

If you’ve been following EFF’s work, you’ll know that we’ve been fighting against the creeping surveillance state for over 20 years. Often, this means pushing back against the National Security Agency’s dragnet surveillance programs, but as new technology becomes available, new threats emerge.
Here are some of the biggest...

2017 Unicorn Cat

What It Means to Fight for Technology Users in 2017

EFF fights for technology users. We believe that empowering and protecting users should be baked into laws, policies, and court decisions, as well as into the technologies themselves. Since our founding in 1990, we have paired this goal with the common-sense recognition that in order to properly consider these questions,...

702 Spying

Urgent: We Only Have Hours Left to Stop the NSA Expansion Bill

According to reports published Tuesday evening by Politico, a group of surveillance hawks in the House of Representatives is trying to ram through a bill that would extend mass surveillance by the National Security Agency. We expect a vote to happen on the House floor as early as tomorrow, which...

The Security Education Companion logo of a key and pencil, surrounded by a holiday wreath

How to Talk to Your Family About Digital Security

You and your family are sipping hot cocoa, gathered around the [holiday object of your choice], and your family member suddenly asks: “Can you help me with my [insert device here]?”
They need a question answered about their computer, phone, tablet, video game console, or internet-connected device. Maybe they...

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