The U.S. Deserves Stronger Spyware Protections Than Biden’s Executive Order
U.S. President Joe Biden has signed an executive order that limits U.S. government agencies from using commercially available spyware – but that doesn’t mean there will be no government use of spyware in the United States. Spyware is a type of malicious software (or malware) which allows someone to...
An Update on Tornado Cash
As many will remember, in August of 2022 the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) placed what it called “Tornado Cash” along with a list of Ethereum digital wallet addresses, on its “Specially Designated Nationals” (SDN) sanctions list. The goal was to prohibit anyone within the United States...
In SAS v. WPL, the Federal Circuit Finally Gets Something Right on Computer Copyright
UN Cybercrime Draft Treaty Timeline
October 2017The Russian Federation presents a letter to the UN General Assembly containing a draft of the United Nations Convention on Cooperation in Combating Cybercrime, intended for circulation to Member States. November 2019A resolution, sponsored by Russia—along with Belarus, Cambodia, China, Iran, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Syria, and Venezuela—to set up...
Decoding the U.N. Cybercrime Treaty
As the fifth session of the UN Cybercrime Convention commenced in Vienna this week, EFF is in attendance to raise concerns that the document lacks strong commitments to human rights and detailed conditions and safeguards that are needed to protect the rights of individuals and organizations around the world....
EFF to Ninth Circuit: Twitter Has First Amendment Right to Ban Users, Including Presidents
Time and time again, we have said–and courts have ruled–that social media platforms have the First Amendment right to ban users. We have argued that banned users cannot successfully sue platforms for acting as government censors without showing that the platforms willfully and fully ceded their editorial discretion...
Media Briefing: Proposed UN Cybercrime Treaty Negotiations Headed in Troubling Direction, Sidestepping Human Rights Protections and Threatening Free Expression, EFF and Allies Warn
San Francisco—On Thursday, April 13, at 10:00 am Pacific Time (1:00 pm Eastern Time, 7 pm CEST), experts with Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and four international allies will brief reporters on the grave threat to human rights posed by ongoing UN Cybercrime Treaty negotiations that could lead to broad surveillance...
New York City Is Dismantling Low-Cost Community Broadband
New York City is in the process of dismantling low-cost community broadband infrastructure in public housing that, if supported, could provide quality access to the internet for hundreds of thousands of families. It’s being replaced by a $90 million, three-year government subsidy, called “Big Apple Connect” that instead gives...
Enough is Enough. Tell Congress to Ban Federal Use of Face Recognition
Cities and counties across the country have banned government use of face surveillance technology, and many more are weighing proposals to do so. From Boston to San Francisco, Jackson, Mississippi to Minneapolis, elected officials and activists know that face surveillance gives police the power to track...
