Congress Is Home These Next Two Weeks. Will Members Hear from You?
Starting today, Congress is closed for the next two weeks so members of Congress can be home. That means if you want to tell your member of Congress how you feel on any specific topic, such as your thoughts on the repeal of your broadband privacy rights or...
Ninth Circuit Sends a Message to Platforms: Use a Moderator, Go to Trial
After almost two decades of litigation, you’d think the contours of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) safe harbors would be settled. But the cases just keep coming, and while the overall trend is pretty favorable , the latest ruling takes an unfortunate turn...
Dream Job Alert: Defend Digital Freedom as an EFF Activist
Want to spend your days fighting for digital rights and building a grassroots movement across the U.S.? You’re in luck! EFF is hiring . We’re expanding the grassroots advocacy team at EFF. Part of our larger activism team dedicated to defending digital liberty in the public sphere, the grassroots...
Twitter Fights Effort by Customs and Border Protection to Identify Administration Critic
Update (April 7, 2017): According to a new filing [.pdf], the Justice Department told Twitter that CBP's request had been withdrawn, and the government no longer seeks to identify the Twitter user. In response, Twitter dropped its suit. Twitter is fighting an attempt by the Customs and...
Border Search Bill Would Rein in CBP
Border Searches of U.S. Persons’ Digital Devices Would Require a Warrant As promised by Sen. Wyden in February , a bill was introduced this week in Congress that would require U.S. Customs and Border Protection or other government agents to obtain a probable cause warrant before searching...
The Four Flavors of Automated License Plate Reader Technology
utomated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) may be the most common mass surveillance technology in use by local law enforcement around the country—but they're not always used in the same way. Typically, ALPR systems are comprised of high-speed cameras connected to computers that photograph every license plate that passes. The...
Security Professionals Scoff at Trump’s Position on Privacy
Attendants of this year’s RSA Conference—an event drawing thousands of digital security professionals, cryptographers, engineers, as well as tech companies and intelligence agencies looking to recruit—expressed skepticism of President Trump’s commitment to privacy. Silicon Valley’s response to President Donald Trump has been famously chilly. Tech leaders are organizing political...
London Police Ink Shadowy Deal with Industry on Website Takedowns
We've previously highlighted how payment service providers like Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, and others go beyond the law to isolate and effectively censor websites that infringe their sometimes arbitrary standards. This has resulted in websites that provide information on sexuality , pharmaceuticals , or whistleblowing , suddenly finding...
An Update on Verizon's AppFlash: Pre-Installed Spyware Is Still Spyware
This post is an UPDATE to a piece we originally published last week . Verizon recently rolled out a new pilot project to pre-install on customers’ devices an app launcher/search tool that, we believe, is really just spyware. This software, called AppFlash, is preloaded on...
Trump Signs Bill to Roll Back Privacy Rules into Law
A measure to roll back crucial privacy protections has crossed the finish line , and Internet users are worse off for it. Despite massive backlash from the American people, Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed into law a resolution that repeals the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)...
Here’s How to Protect Your Privacy From Your Internet Service Provider
We pay our monthly Internet bill to be able to access the Internet. We don’t pay it to give our Internet service provider (ISP) a chance to collect and sell our private data to make more money. This was apparently lost on congressional Republicans as they voted to...
The Bill of Rights at the Border: Fourth Amendment Limits on Searching Your Data and Devices
More than 325,000 people enter the United States via airports every day, with hundreds of thousands more crossing by land at the borders. Not only is that a lot of people, it’s also a lot of computers, smartphones, and tablets riding along in our pockets, bags,...
One Million Badgers
This week—for the first time ever— Privacy Badger has surpassed one million users. Privacy Badger is a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera that automatically blocks hidden third-party trackers that would otherwise follow you around the web and spy on your browsing habits. Third-party tracking—that is, when...
Stupid Patent of the Month: Storing Files in Folders
Our ongoing Reclaim Invention campaign urges universities not to sell patents to trolls. This month’s stupid patent provides a good example of why. US Patent No. 8,473,532 (the ’532 patent), “Method and apparatus for automatic organization for computer files,” began its life with publicly-funded Louisiana...
NAFTA Renegotiation Will Resurrect Failed TPP Proposals
Yesterday a draft letter was leaked from acting USTR Stephen Vaughn to Congress on the Trump administration's intentions towards NAFTA. The letter describes the administration's intention to "update" NAFTA to include provisions on topics such as copyright and e-commerce that had been contained in the TPP: Most chapters...
