Uncle Sow: Dark Caracal in Latin America
In 2018, EFF along with researchers from Lookout Security published a report describing the Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) we dubbed "Dark Caracal." Now we have uncovered a new Dark Caracal campaign operating since March of 2022, with hundreds of infections across more than a dozen countries. In this report...
Stalkerware Maker Fined $410k and Compelled to Notify Victims
Last week, the New York Attorney General secured a $410,000 fine from Patrick Hinchy and 16 companies that he runs which produce and sell spyware and stalkerware. In addition, he and his companies must modify their stalkerware to alert victims that their devices have been compromised. This sends a...
Participation in the Fediverse
Parts of the fediverse have been in something of an uproar recently over an experimental search service that was under development called (appropriately enough) Searchtodon. The project aimed to enable people to search their own home timeline and worked by being authorized by a user to access that user’s timeline...
Podcast Episode: When Tech Comes to Town
When a tech company moves to your city, the effects ripple far beyond just the people it employs. It can impact thousands of ancillary jobs – from teachers to nurses to construction workers – as well as the community’s housing, transportation, health care, and other businesses. And too often, these...
Courts Must Not Allow Litigants to Plead Around The First Amendment’s Speech Protections
Meritless defamation lawsuits can deter legal speech by forcing people to spend time and money fighting them. That is why courts must diligently protect people’s First Amendment rights by quickly dismissing claims that target people’s protected opinions.That did not happen in a case on appeal to the U.S. Court of...
EFF, ACLU Seek to Protect the Public’s Right to Access Judicial Records
ST. LOUIS — The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of an appeal filed by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP). The brief argues that RCFP has standing to sue to...
The Breadth of the Fediverse
The Washington Post recently published an op-ed by Megan McArdle titled "Twitter might be replaced, but not by Mastodon or other imitators." The article argues that Mastodon is falling into a common trap for open source projects: building a look-alike alternative which improves things a typical user doesn’t care...
Civil Society Organizations Call on the House Of Lords to Protect Private Messaging in the Online Safety Bill
As the UK's Online Safety Bill enters its Second Reading in the House of Lords, EFF, Liberty, Article 19, and Big Brother Watch are calling on Peers to protect end-to-end encryption and the right to private messaging online.As we've said before, undermining protections for end-to-end encryption would make...
Setting the Record Straight: EFF Statement in Support of FCC Nominee Gigi Sohn
In the last week, a number of dangerous and conspiracy-driven attacks were launched against EFF board member Gigi Sohn, an eminently qualified nominee to the Federal Communications Commission. These attacks attempted to twist EFF's long-held positions and commitments into dog whistles against Ms. Sohn. We’d like to set the record...
EFF Files Amicus Briefs in Two Important Geofence Search Warrant Cases
Should the police be able to identify everyone who was in a busy metropolitan area, just because a crime occurred there? In two amicus briefs just filed in appellate courts, we argue that’s a clearly unconstitutional search.[1]The two cases are People v. Meza, in the California...
