EFFector Volume 38, Issue 20

🤕 Medicare's AI Experiment

Welcome to EFFector, your regular digest on everything digital rights from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

In our 855th issue: Unconstitutional digital dragnets, a post office surveillance scheme, and what EFF uncovered about Medicare's AI experiment.

When you lose your rights online, you lose them in real life. Become an EFF member today!

Featured Story: New Records Expose Major Problems With Medicare’s AI Experiment

New records obtained by EFF expose additional issues with Medicare’s AI-driven prior authorization program—which requires medical providers to request permission before delivering certain medical treatments if they want assurance they will be covered by Medicare—and show why we need stronger legal limits around government use of automated decision-making.

In January, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services launched WISeR, a new Medicare program that uses AI to evaluate prior authorization requests for certain medical services. In March, EFF sued for records on WISeR, seeking badly needed transparency about this experimental AI program that could jeopardize Medicare beneficiaries' access to care. What we found were problems on top of problems.

The records we received revealed that WISeR has resulted in widespread delays and denials of care, operational chaos, and reports of patient harm. Further documents obtained by EFF show a rushed and rocky rollout, highlighting the dangers that arise when governments treat AI like a silver bullet for complex problems.

EFF has now published hundreds of pages of documents obtained through our lawsuit, available here: https://www.eff.org/cases/eff-v-cms

These records show that the WISeR rollout was rushed and rocky from the start, highlighting the dangers that arise when governments treat AI like a silver bullet for complex problems. The documents also highlight the need for more transparency about safeguards against inappropriate, AI-driven denials.

EFF has long argued that AI has no place in consequential government decisions about peoples’ rights or access to benefits, such as immigration enforcement and policing decisions. That’s because using automated decision-making in these contexts risks decisions that violate people’s rights or deprive them of benefits they’re entitled to based on biased or inappropriate considerations and without proper due process or accountability if there is an error.

By outsourcing decision-making to private AI companies without sufficient transparency, testing, or legal limits, WISeR jeopardizes seniors’ access to medical care. Congress should step in to place greater legal limits on the use of automated decision-making in Medicare.

READ MORE…

‌EFF Updates

🕸 DIGITAL DRAGNETS: EFF, along with the ACLU, filed an amicus brief asking a federal appeals court to find reverse location warrants categorically unconstitutional. The case, United States v. Spurlock, involves a “tower dump” warrant. These overbroad warrants require cellular providers to turn over location data about every phone in a given area at a given time. This is the first such case to be heard by a federal appeals court since the US Supreme Court ruled this summer that highly similar “geofence” warrants are searches under the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.

🪧PROTESTER SURVEILLANCE: The U.S. Postal Service used social media surveillance to monitor and report on protests across the political spectrum, government records show. The records, disclosed to EFF and other requesters suing the postal service under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the agency’s internet Covert Operations Program, or iCOP, routinely sifted through social media posts organizing and discussing protests with little records of any oversight or legal justification.

🔒 ENCRYPT IT ALREADY: In a victory for privacy, Apple has introduced a new setting to “Exclude Apps” from Siri AI with its iOS 27.2 update. This fulfills one of our asks from our Encrypt It Already campaign earlier this year. One of our main concerns with new AI features on devices is how those features interact with end-to-end encrypted content, particularly with secure messaging apps. To add apps to the exclusion list, open "Settings > Siri > Excluded Apps." Then tap “Add Apps” and select any apps you’d like to add to the exclusion list.

🪪 TECH TIPS FOR PARENTS: In today’s digital world, the internet is an essential resource for young people to access information, explore community, and find themselves. But we know that this often comes alongside fears of experiencing online harms like doxxing, grooming, or bullying. That’s why this Digital Parent Week, we’re sharing easy tips on how parents and their children can work together to co-curate a digital safety plan that helps all members of the family enjoy the benefits of technology while protecting their online privacy and safety.

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