September 29, 2006
IEEE Spectrum
"Making Computer Crime Sexy"
By David Kushner
Last spring, the teachers, students, and workers at the University of Kentucky Federal Credit Union received an email that seemed routine enough: Because of a problem in the electronic banking system, customers needed to verify their account information...
The case of the Haephratis reveals just how sophisticated spyware has become. "This marks the appearance of custom-coded spyware that's targeted for a specific purpose," says Kurt Opsahl, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the San Francisco-based civil liberties group, "unlike malicious code [such as viruses and worms] it is designed to be surreptitious."
September 29, 2006
Washington Post
"Hollywood Says Piracy Has Ripple Effect"
By Frank Aherns
Seeking another weapon in its war on piracy, the movie industry hopes to wow lawmakers today with a study that says the economic impact of illegal DVD and Internet film distribution may be as much as three times what was previously estimated...
"In other words, let's say people are forgoing paying for $6 billion in movies by downloading or consuming illegal goods but end up spending that $6 billion on iPods, computers and HDTV sets on which to watch the movies, which leads to $25 billion in job creation in the computer/software/consumer electronics field," Jason Shultz, staff lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, wrote in an e-mail.
September 28, 2006
CNET
"Advocacy groups to Congress: Forget HP. What about NSA?"
By Anne Broache
The spying scandal that rocked Hewlett-Packard's boardroom may be disconcerting to many onlookers, but Congress would be better served if it devoted the same sort of scrutiny to the Bush Administration's warrantless terrorist surveillance program, advocacy groups and some politicians said Thursday...
"The actions of Hewlett Packard executives, although egregious, pale in comparison to the violation of the privacy rights of tens of millions of American consumers that should be safeguarded by federal law within the jurisdiction of the Committee," wrote the signatories, which included the American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Democracy and Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Electronic Privacy Information Center.
September 28, 2006
San Jose Mercury News
"S.F. airport set for new passports"
By Michele R. Marcucci
San Francisco International Airport is the first in the nation set to accept new passports embedded with computer chips that contain a traveler's photo and data, federal officials announced Wednesday...
"Most of the privacy and security problems are with the fact that you are broadcasting this data. Whoever's got a receiver is going to pick it up,'' said Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. "What makes that choice a good one? That's never really been answered.''
September 27, 2006
Eye Weekly
"The ideal Copy"
By Brian Joseph Davis
While the US entertainment industry tries to control internet downloading through punitive measures, the artists and activists attending Toronto's first Copy Camp "unconference" see opportunities for copyright reform...
According to Ren Bucholz of digital civil libertarians the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Canada is positioned for a rumble. "Right now," he says, "Canada's copyright law is in a state of flux. There were efforts by the last government and now by the current government to change the laws in ways that would be significant for not only creators and educators but also anyone who deals with copyrighted material. Which is all of us."
September 26, 2006
Red Herring
"AOL's Search Woes Mount"
AOL search could find itself losing even more of its market share in the search business, thanks to the company's mounting woes over the release of search queries from thousands of its users...
Meanwhile, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights group, has also filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission against AOL.
September 26, 2006
IDG News Service
"AOL members sue over search data release"
By Juan Carlos Perez
Three AOL LLC members have sued the company over its controversial release of member search-engine records, in what their lawyers are billing as the first such lawsuit seeking national class-action status...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission against AOL in August over the search-data release.
September 26, 2006
Chicago Tribune
"A video policy scarier than the films it covers"
By Eric Zorn
Where Stephen King meets George Orwell we find Amazon.com's "Unbox Video: Terms of Use"...
Author Cory Doctorow, a former director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation who writes and speaks on digital copyright issues, called "Unbox Video: Terms of Use" an "incredibly abusive" user-licensing agreement; the worst he's ever seen, and he's seen quite a few.
September 25, 2006
The Hill Times
"Copyright the most lobbied area of federal policymaking"
By Simon Doyle
As the government prepares to introduce a new copyright bill this fall, a new book examines the influence of the lobbying of the Canadian recording industry...
The ISPs, such as Bell Canada, TELUS Corp. and Rogers Communications Inc., helped form an influential coalition of user groups called the Balanced Copyright Coalition (BCC). The user lobby also benefited from the work of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an American civil liberties organization that helped mobilize grassroots involvement in the Canadian policy process.
September 25, 2006
Digital Music Weblog
"Digital Music Profile: The EFF's Gwen Hinze"
Over recent months the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been waging a campaign against the proposed new WIPO Broadcast Treaty, which would introduce a new 50 year 'broadcasting right' in addition to existing copyright and intellectual property laws...
In an effort to find some order amidst the chaos of the current discussions surrounding the treaty we spoke to the EFF's International Affairs Director, Gwen Hinze about the EFF's objections to the treaty.
September 25, 2006
Associated Press
"Air-security rules creates game we can't win, a specialist says"
It must say something about our times that Bruce Schneier, a geeky computer encryption specialist turned all-purpose security guru, occasionally gets recognized in public...
"Bruce Schneier is a master of explaining security and a master of telling us why security and freedom are the same thing, why security can't ever be had at freedom's expense," says Cory Doctorow, an author and a fellow at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
September 25, 2006
Wired News
"NSA Cases Face Secret Tribunal"
By Ryan Singel
A sprawling array of cases challenging the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance of Americans' domestic and international communications may be moved to an obscure secret court in Washington, if a pending bill to alter the nation's surveillance law is voted on before the upcoming recess...
It's unclear whether the provision would allow the attorney general to transfer the Electronic Frontier Foundation's lawsuit against AT&T for its alleged complicity in the warrantless surveillance program.
September 24, 2006
Associated Press
"Online searches can be linked to identity"
By Anick Jesdanunn
Question - Can people really tell what I search for over the Internet?..
Peter Eckersley, staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said there are measures consumers can take to reduce the risks.
September 23, 2006
Boston Globe
"Yahoo's pop hook: Download music without limits"
By Hiawatha Bray
The latest album from pop singer Jesse McCartney could make David Goldberg a star...
"Clearly the dominance that Apple has in the digital music space is entirely a product of DRM," said Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an Internet civil liberties group.
September 22, 2006
ZDNet
"Newmark reflects on the power of the Web"
By Caroline McCarthy
As part of the inaugural celebration of OneWebDay, a worldwide tribute to online life, Craigslist.org founder Craig Newmark met with a group of law students to discuss everything from "The Colbert Report" to the headaches of Manhattan real estate...
Newmark's focus was, appropriately, on law. "We have a constitutional crisis in this country right now," he said, talking about Craigslist's work with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and its advocacy of freedom of speech and information online as well as its focus on privacy issues. Craigslist, after all, has proven controversial with its insistence on largely unregulated content that's kept in check by "flagging" on the part of users rather than by a surveillance staff. EFF advocates "like us because we give them many exciting opportunities on the bleeding edge of Internet law," he said with a laugh.
September 22, 2006
CNET
"Newmark reflects on the power of the Web"
By Caroline McCarthy
As part of the inaugural celebration of OneWebDay, a worldwide tribute to online life, Craigslist.org founder Craig Newmark met with a group of law students to discuss everything from "The Colbert Report" to the headaches of Manhattan real estate...
We have a constitutional crisis in this country right now," he said, talking about Craigslist's work with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and its advocacy of freedom of speech and information online as well as its focus on privacy issues. Craigslist, after all, has proven controversial with its insistence on largely unregulated content that's kept in check by "flagging" on the part of users rather than by a surveillance staff. EFF advocates "like us because we give them many exciting opportunities on the bleeding edge of Internet law," he said with a laugh.
September 22, 2006
Mississippi Clarion Ledger
"Mississippians accused in piracy lawsuit"
By LaRaye Brown
The Recording Industry Association of America filed another round of civil lawsuits against Mississippians this week, accusing them of illegally downloading music...
Jeschke said several consumers have contacted her group after receiving letters from RIAA. Her organization offers advice, sometimes recommending consumers get a lawyer if they want to go to court and making them aware they will incur legal bills, even if they win the case.
September 22, 2006
Denver Post
"Gizmo lets gas purchasers pump, press, go"
By Kristi Arellano
When customers are asked to pay for their purchases at Stop 'n Save stores on the Western Slope, an increasing number of them simply give the finger. Index finger, that is...
"A lot of people will buy into it based on convenience," said Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. "But I think the jury is very much out on biometrics as something that is going to have benefit in a lot of areas."
September 20, 2006
Computeractive
"Treaty troubles consumer rights organisation"
By Anthony Dhanendran
A new treaty that would give broadcasters' greater powers over how consumers view or access programmes has been called a 'protection racket' by a consumer rights group.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which campaigns on digital rights issues, said giving broadcasters these powers is unnecessary and would hand them unfair power over what people do in their homes: such as preventing users of personal video recorders (PVRs) skipping advertising in programmes.
September 20, 2006
Boston Globe
"Ratings sites flourish behind a veil of anonymity"
By Sacha Pfeiffer
The phenomenon began with websites like RateMyProfessors.com, which lets college students nationwide evaluate faculty by posting anonymous comments that are often entertaining and sometimes scathing...
Anonymity for online users and immunity from lawsuits for online service providers is "absolutely vital to allowing the Internet to function as it does," said Kurt Opsahl, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit San Francisco digital rights group. "You couldn't have services like ratings sites or Craig's List or message boards or Amazon's user feedback or eBay's reviews of sellers without it."
September 19, 2006
The Inquirer
"Zune won't play MS DRM infected files"
By Charlie Demerjian
Microsoft just bit its partners in the donkey euphemism with their DRM infection on music and video files. According to the EFF, backed up by the MS Zune docs here, the new MS DRM infection is incompatible with the old MS DRM infection. 'Tis to laugh. No, 'tis to cry.
September 18, 2006
New American Media
"The Secret Room -- The Bush Administration's Surveillance Game"
Although it may appear as if Congress is about to put restraints on the Bush administration's wiretapping programs, the three "reform bills" now up for a vote all paint a deceptive picture of the massive domestic surveillance programs that the government has up and running. Because several ongoing invasion-of-privacy lawsuits could expose the extent of the illegal wiretapping, the administration is seeking via these bills to shunt the lawsuits into a secret court, where they will die...
In May of 2006, acting on behalf of phone customers, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a class action against AT&T for colluding with the government by conducting systematic searches without any court order. The lawsuit is now awaiting a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling, expected in October. A lower court tossed out AT&T's and the government's requests for dismissal.
September 18, 2006
Toronto Star
"Rootkit settlement gives Canadians short shrift"
By Michael Geist
The Sony BMG rootkit controversy generated enormous public attention last year after it was disclosed that the company inserted faulty copy-protection software onto dozens of CDs, rendering hundreds of thousands of personal computers vulnerable to attack by hackers and viruses...
For reasons that only became apparent last week, the Canadian settlement does not include injunctive relief... The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a U.S. civil liberties group that negotiated the U.S. settlement, has reacted angrily to this claim, characterizing it as "inaccurate" and suggesting that "it appears to be an attempt to mislead the Canadian courts."
September 17, 2006
Washington Post
"Port protection plan in trouble"
By Spencer S. Hsu
A Bush administration initiative to secure the nation's ports is bogged down in industry opposition, technology flaws and evidence that it fails to safeguard workers' privacy, according to industry and government analysts...
"There's this idea that an ID card or ID credential is this kind of panacea," said Lee Tien, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "But they are difficult to design and implement ... and what we're seeing is every attempt to do so is fraught with serious, serious problems."
September 15, 2006
Associated Press
"Who Is Watching Your Internet Searches?"
By Anick Jesdanun
Can people really tell what I search for over the Internet?...
But Peter Eckersley, staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said there are measures consumers can take to reduce the risks.
September 15, 2006
CBC News
"Questions raised over Sony's proposed Canadian CD settlement"
Advocates for the digital rights of consumers have expressed concerns over a proposed class action settlement involving CDs released by Sony BMG...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a U.S. digital rights advocacy group, says the proposed settlement does not include provisions included in the U.S. class action settlement, including the requirement to disclose any future use of digital rights management and to provide a program that uninstalls such a system.
September 15, 2006
VNUnet.com
"Privacy group tackles US government on e-spying"
By Shaun Nichols
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has launched a campaign to shed light on the US government's electronic surveillance programmes...
David Sobel, senior counsel on the FOIA Litigation for Accountable Government project, said that the investigations are at the early stages.
"The first step is initialising our very early requests and in the first month we might be filing some lawsuits based on lack of response," he told vnunet.com.
September 14, 2006
CNET
"E-voting machines again under fire"
By Dawn Kawamoto
The EFF on Wednesday filed a brief with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, asking the court to reject a request to dismiss an EFF lawsuit against the Ohio secretary of state and governor...
"Ohio's procedures, like many used elsewhere across the country, simply don't do enough to protect voters from the serious vulnerabilities in the current generation of electronic voting equipment," Matt Zimmerman, EFF staff attorney, said in a statement.
September 14, 2006
Mother Jones
"Facebook and the Politics of Privacy"
By Peter Meredith
When social networking website Facebook changed on September 5 to make it easier for users to keep track of their online friends, the company received a wave of unanticipated protest...
"When people belong to social networking sites, they really are putting up news for the world to see," says the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Rebecca Jeschke.
September 14, 2006
Wall Street Journal
"Sewing and Suing Aren't a Happy Mix For Embroiderers"
By Dionne Searcey
Janet Ebert, a longtime embroidery hobbyist, logged onto the Internet last year and found images of flowers and cuddly animals...
Ms. Schultz and others have complained on Internet forums about the letters that they say amount to a shakedown. Two of them have enlisted the help of an Internet privacy group called the Electronic Frontier Foundation to quash the subpoena sent to Yahoo, aiming to protect anonymity online and citing First Amendment concerns.
The coalition has since withdrawn the subpoena, but attorney Carole Faulkner says she is working on a new, narrower subpoena and still has plans to sue some forum members for defamation. Corynne McSherry, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says the coalition's "shotgun approach is aimed not at redressing defamation, but at intimidating those who have sought to raise public awareness of its ham-fisted tactics." She says she is pleased the subpoena was withdrawn. Yahoo declined to comment.
September 13, 2006
Boise Weekly
"Big Brother is Watching You"
By Tera Servatius
The federal government is building a domestic spy network unlike any the world has ever seen...
Companies have been keeping data on consumers for decades, and the types of data they keep haven't changed much, says Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. But their ability to store it has. It used to be that a company could only afford to keep three months worth of paper data in a warehouse somewhere. A decade later, they stored three years' worth on computers. Today, computer storage capacity is so great that the once-necessary data purge is becoming obsolete.
September 13, 2006
Future Tense - American Public Media
"How to protect privacy of Internet searches"
By Jon Gordon
AOL caused an uproar last month when it disclosed Internet search terms of 600,000 customers...
You can keep your searches private, but you'll have to change your habits and do a little technical work. The following advice comes from the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
September 13, 2006
Ars Technica
"EFF publishes search privacy tips"
By Ryan Paul
Recent data breaches and AOL's epic search engine query disclosure scandal have made many users more concerned about search engine privacy. In an attempt to help educate Internet users, the EFF has published a concise guide entitled, "Six Tips to Protect Your Online Search Privacy."
San Francisco Chronicle
"The password today is 'pretext'"
By Dan Fost
The Hewlett-Packard scandal has taken a word from the film noir world of the private eye, pretexting, and put it into a bright spotlight...
"The problem is not merely about those who pretend to be someone else, but also that the companies that have our information are careless with it," Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, said in an e-mail. "What's easier, to go after pretexters or for AT&T to be more careful?"
September 13, 2006
Blogger News Network
"Podcasters Unite To Resist WIPO"
By Deek Deekster
In Geneva this week, Gwen Hinze from EFF is presenting a joint statement from podcasters from around the world. This piece of internet history is an attempt to make sure that the development of the Broadcast Treaty into internet broadcast/netcast/webcast does not wipe out grassroots podcasting.
September 12, 2006
ZDNet
"EFF: Obscure bill could turn cache into cash for music biz"
By David Berlind
Since earlier this summer, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is putting out the equivalent of a red alert about some language that it says has been snuck into an obscure copyright bill - language that the EFF says could smash Internet fair use...
The EFF home page has a giant image/link that drives you straight to the page where you can take action (like, contact your lawmaker).
September 12, 2006
SecurityProNews
"EFF Raises A FLAG"
By David Utter
David Sobel and Marcia Hoffman, both known for their work with the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), have signed on to lead the EFF's FLAG project...
"National security and law enforcement demand some level of government secrecy, but too much can enable abuses of power," said Sobel, who will direct EFF's new project. "The NSA's illegal spying program and other recent revelations show that the government has radically expanded its surveillance of ordinary Americans, obtaining untold access to the details of our everyday lives."
September 12, 2006
InfoWorld
"Embroidery Piracy and EBay/PayPal Privacy"
By Ed Foster
Yahoo began notifying participants in the group that their information was being subpoenaed, which led to something of a stir. Not only did the Missouri defendants' attorney file motions to quash all the subpoenas, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed in support of quashing the Yahoo subpoena, posting documents in the process that provide us with the best window into this whole affair.
September 12, 2006
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"Few are laughing over sick online joke"
The moral of the story is this: Beware of what you post on the Internet...
Kurt Opsahl, a staff lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says Craigslist would be protected under federal law exempting a service provider from liability for what their users do.
September 11, 2006
VNUnet.com
"Podcasters unite to challenge copyright landgrab"
By Will Head
A new broadcasting right proposed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (Wipo) is being opposed by freedom organisation the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)...
"A TV channel broadcasting your Creative Commons-licensed movie could legally demand that no one record or redistribute it, and sue anyone who does," explained the EFF.
September 8, 2006
Legal Times
"DOJ Losing Ground In Wiretap Fight"
By Jason McLure
Federal Judge Anna Diggs Taylor came under attack from conservatives last month after ruling the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program is both illegal and unconstitutional...
Walker is presiding over the class action Hepting v. AT&T Corp. Filed in February by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the mighty plaintiffs firm Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins on behalf of AT&T customers in California, the suit accuses the telecom company of illegally providing the NSA with the contents of its customers' communications. It also alleges the company illegally turned over to the government other customer data that could be searched by databases for communications patterns.
September 7, 2006
Network World
"IT security lags five years after Sept. 11"
Since terrorists attacked the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, the government has begun a robust, and oft-criticized, electronic-surveillance program, but other IT-related security projects designed to thwart terrorism have made little progress...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), leading a lawsuit against AT&T for its alleged participation in the NSA surveillance program, says some U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents have complained about the quality of the leads generated by the program. "It's like, 'Oh great, more calls to Pizza Hut,'" said Kevin Bankston, an EFF staff attorney. "This many may not help us connect the dots - it may just be creating more dots."
September 6, 2006
CIO
"Advocacy Groups Team to Stop Surveillance Bills"
By Al Sacco
A group of civil liberties and other advocacy groups are urging supporters to contact the U.S. Congress as it moves ahead to approve an electronic surveillance program run through the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA)...
"This is an unprecedented expansion of government surveillance," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney at the EFF, which is spearheading a lawsuit against AT&T for allegedly participating in the NSA program. "We've encountered the ultimate nightmare scenario as far as electronic privacy is concerned: an unchecked executive branch."
September 6, 2006
CNET
"Copyright treaty draws tech industry criticism"
By Anne Broache
An online culture built around user-generated content on Web sites like YouTube and MySpace would be imperiled by a new treaty, public interest groups and some technology companies said Tuesday...
The signatories included Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, AT&T, Verizon Communications, Sony and TiVo, as well as the American Library Association, the Broadband Service Providers Association, the Home Recording Rights Coalition and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
September 5, 2006
Harvard Political Review
"Revolution in Sound"
By Adam Scheuer
Music today spreads like wildfire...
As Derek Slater of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a California-based non-profit advocacy and legal organization, told the HPR, "Because of the low costs of digital distribution, there's a veritable pot of gold waiting for record companies if only they would really embrace digital distribution."
September 5, 2006
WebProNews
"Google Surrenders Orkut Data To Brazil"
By Doug Caverly
Google is giving in to an order to share data on some of its Orkut users. The company put up a good fight, but folded as the Brazilian government threatened it with fines and penalties...
"Suppose the Chinese government sought the identities of people who visited dissident Web sites?" asked David Sobel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Or the Iranian regime wanted to identify those who posted material critical of Islam?"
September 4, 2006
Intellectual Property Watch
"Swedish "Pirates'" Call for IP Reform Spurs Global Interest"
By Dugie Standeford
A Swedish political movement seeking drastic changes to intellectual property law is resonating internationally, according to a spokesman for the group called the Pirate Party...
"There are already lots of ways that people exchange material that the copyright industries can't see," said Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) Staff Technologist Peter Eckersley... The Pirate Party darknet is "just a continuation of existing trends," Eckersley said.
September 4, 2006
Editor and Publisher
"How to Turn Multimedia Clark Kents Into Superheroes"
By Emily Sweeney
Mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent once said, "I've got a minor in just about everything. A good reporter needs to know all kinds of things."
To learn more about the legal issues that crop up in the blogosphere, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's legal guide for bloggers (www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/) can be a helpful resource.
September 4, 2006
Associated Press
"CIA branch invests in technology companies to help improve spying"
By Beth Davidz
A relatively unknown branch of the CIA is investing millions of taxpayer dollars in technology startup companies that could map the future of spying. Some of their products can pry into Americans' personal lives, not just for the government but for big business as well...
Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney at the digital privacy nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the overlap between technologies built for the CIA and corporate America isn't surprising.
Nonetheless the potential for abuse gives Tien pause.
"How do you control, how do regulate, how do you govern that kind of power that has a very obvious ability to be abused?"
September 4, 2006
Kansas City Star
"What'd you say? Math sorts out noise"
By Scott Cannon
One privacy expert cited a standing U.S. Supreme Court decision that bars law enforcement from using thermal imaging technology to identify people growing marijuana in their basements. The court said that because the technology is largely unknown, using it to peek into someone's home presents a violation of their privacy.
By that same standard, said David Sobel of Electronic Frontier Foundation, the government would need a warrant to use a device to eavesdrop on the two Chiefs fans.
"But as the rest of society becomes aware of this new capability," Sobel said, "that expectation of privacy will go away."
September 4, 2006
Information Week
"Supreme Court To Hear Arguments On Software Patents And Open Source"
By Charles Babcock
The opponents of proliferating software patents who see them as a threat to open source software may finally get their day in court--the U.S. Supreme Court...
Patents are meant to protect innovations that represent inventions and breakthroughs, not steps that "a person of ordinary skill in the field could consider obvious," says Corynne McSherry, an EFF attorney.
September 1, 2006
Oakland Tribune
"Lawmakers put up blocks to RFID tags"
By Barbara Grady
California legislators put up some roadblocks this week before a hot new technology that's increasingly used in tagging packages and inventory is used to track individuals and expose their personal data to identity theft...
The so-called REAL IDs, which states will have the option of issuing instead of drivers licenses, will follow yet-to-be decided specifications issued by Homeland Security. At one time, there was talk of including RFID chips in these REAL ID cards, according to Simitian and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
