San Francisco Police Nailed for Violating Public Records Laws Regarding Face Recognition and Fusion Center Documents
By unanimous vote, San Francisco's public records appeals body ruled last night that the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) violated state and local laws when it failed to respond adequately to EFF's requests for documents about face recognition and the department's relationship with the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center (NCRIC),...
New York: Tell Your Assemblymembers to Pass This Landmark Repair Bill
New York’s legislature has the chance to make history and stand up for users’ rights by passing the Digital Fair Repair Act. Assemblymember Patricia Fahy’s bill, A7006-B, would require companies to give people access to what they need to fix their stuff by selling spare parts and special tools at...
Hearing Wednesday: EFF Testifies Against SFPD for Violating Transparency Laws
SAN FRANCISCO – On Wednesday, June 1, at 5 p.m. PT, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will testify against the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) at the city’s Sunshine Ordinance Task Force meeting. EFF filed a complaint against the SFPD for withholding records about a controversial investigation involving the use...
Community Activists Reach Settlement With Marin County Sheriff for Unlawfully Sharing Drivers’ Locations with Out-Of-State and Federal Agencies
SAN FRANCISCO—Community activists in Northern California today announced a settlement in their lawsuit against the County of Marin and Marin County Sheriff Robert Doyle, whose office illegally made the license plate and location information of local drivers, captured by a network of surveillance cameras, available to hundreds of federal...
Podcast Episode: Wordle and the Web We Need
Where is the internet we were promised? It feels like we’re dominated by megalithic, siloed platforms where users have little or no say over how their data is used and little recourse if they disagree, where direct interaction with users is seen as a bug to be fixed, and where...
EFF's 14th Annual Cyberlaw Trivia Night
Massachusetts' Highest Court Upholds Cell Tower Dump Warrant
This blog post was drafted with help from former EFF Legal Intern Emma Hagemann.Massachusetts’ highest court has upheld the collection of mass cell tower data, despite recognizing that this data not only provides investigators with “highly personal and private” information but also has the potential to reveal “the locations, identities,...
Patent Troll Uses Ridiculous "People Finder" Patent to Sue Small Dating Companies
Finding people near you with shared interests, and talking to them, has a very long history in human culture. We’re social animals. We need to find other people close to us to work together with, play games with, and build relationships and families with. Modern online social networks are built...
11th Circuit's Ruling to Uphold Injunction Against Florida’s Social Media Law is a Win Amid a Growing Pack of Bad Online Speech Bills
There’s a lot to like in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal’s ruling that much of Florida’s social media law—the parts which would prohibit internet platforms from removing or moderating any speech by or about political candidates or by “journalistic enterprises”—likely violate the First Amendment and should remain on...
California Bill Would Make New Broadband Networks More Expensive
The state of California is primed to bring 21st-century fiber access at affordable rates to every Californian. Last year’s unanimous passage of S.B. 156, a historic multi-billion investment in broadband, means every California community has the resources available to chart a long-term course toward building fiber networks. The Department...






