EFF Files Amicus Brief Challenging Orange County, CA’s Controversial DNA Collection Program
Should the government be allowed to collect your DNA—and retain it indefinitely—if you’re arrested for a low-level offense like shoplifting a tube of lipstick, driving without a valid license, or walking your dog off leash? We don’t think so. As we argue in an amicus brief filed in...
The Rise of the Police-Advertiser
In August, the Tulsa police department held a press conference about how its new Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs), a controversial piece of surveillance technology, was the policing equivalent of “turning the lights on” for the first time. In Ontario, California, the city put out a press...
EFF Award Winner: Kyle Wiens
Sacramento County Resident Joins EFF Lawsuit After Illegal Sharing of His Electricity Usage Data Makes Him a Target of Law Enforcement
The Sacramento County Utility District (SMUD) and the Sacramento Police Department are running an illegal data sharing scheme, with the police making bulk requests for customers’ energy usage data to enforce a cannabis grow ordinance, according to a new EFF lawsuit.The secret data sharing arrangement violates SMUD customers’...
The Filter Mandate Bill Is a Privacy and Security Mess
Among its many other problems, the Strengthening Measures to Advance Rights Technologies Copyright Act would mandate a slew of filtering technologies that online service providers must "accommodate." And that mandate is broad, so poorly-conceived, and so technically misguided that it will inevitably create serious privacy and security risks. Since 1998,...
EFF Award Winner: Digital Defense Fund
Demand Your Right to Repair in New York State
New York's legislature passed a landmark right-to-repair bill this year. Now it's up to Governor Hochul to make it law.Back in June, we asked New Yorkers to contact your Assemblymembers about the Digital Fair Repair Act, a landmark repair bill in New York. The bill passed the state legislature,...
EFF Award Winner: Alaa Abd El-Fattah
Turkey's New Disinformation Law Spells Trouble For Free Expression
Turkey’s government recently passed a new law aimed at curbing disinformation that citizens have dubbed the “censorship law,” according to reports. The new law was met with condemnation from both inside the country and abroad.Troublingly, the vaguely-worded law, passed by parliament on October 13, prescribes three years’ imprisonment...
Stop the Copyright Creep
In 2020, two copyright-related proposals became law despite the uproar against them. The first was the unconstitutional CASE Act. The second was a felony streaming proposal that had never been seen or debated in public. In fact, its inclusion was in the news before its text was ever made public....
