Why Is PayPal Denying Service to Palestinians?
For many years, Palestinian rights defenders have championed the cause of Palestinians in the occupied territories, who are denied access to PayPal, while Israeli settlers have full access to PayPal products. A recent campaign, led by Palestinian digital rights group 7amleh, calls on PayPal to adhere to its...
EFF to Tenth Circuit: First Amendment Protects Public School Students’ Off-Campus Social Media Speech
EFF filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in support of public school students’ right to speak while off school grounds or after school hours, including on social media. We argued that Supreme Court precedent makes clear that the First Amendment rarely...
Coalition Against Stalkerware Named J.D. Falk Award Winner for Raising Awareness About and Helping Victims of Malicious Spying Apps
San Francisco—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is thrilled to announce that the Coalition Against Stalkerware, co-founded by Cybersecurity Director Eva Galperin and leading antivirus companies and victim support groups, has received the J.D. Falk Award for its work raising awareness, increasing detection, and combating the spread of malware used for...
What the Facebook Whistleblower Tells Us About Big Tech
Through her leaks and Congressional testimony, Frances Haugen, the “Facebook Whistleblower,” revealed a lot about Facebook's operation. Many of these revelations are things we've long suspected but now have proof of: Facebook focuses on growth—of users and time spent on its platforms—to the exclusion of everything else. For Facebook,...
Virtual Workshop Tuesday: EFF’s Mitch Stoltz Will Discuss Free Software Movement On Panel Examining Ethics and Open Source Software Licensing
San Francisco—On Tuesday, October 12, at 12 pm PT, EFF Senior Staff Attorney Mitch Stoltz will speak at an online workshop convened by the UCLA Institute for Technology, Law & Policy to explore the future of open source software. Registration for this free online event is here.The possibility that...
Livestream Panel Discussion Tuesday: EFF, Encryption Users Will Discuss Consequences of Apple’s Planned Scanning Tool, Suggest Changes
San Francisco—On Tuesday, October 12, at 8 am PT, EFF Senior Staff Technologist Erica Portnoy and representatives from more than 10 human, digital, and children’s rights organizations will hold a livestreamed panel discussion about the ramifications of Apple’s plans to add scanning tools to its devices on people...
Face Recognition Technology: Commonly Used Terms
As face recognition technology evolves at a dizzying speed, new uses and terminologies seem to develop daily. On this page, we attempt to define and disambiguate some of the most commonly used terms. For more information on government use of face recognition and how to end it in your...
Face Recognition Isn’t Just Face Identification and Verification: It’s Also Photo Clustering, Race Analysis, Real-time Tracking, and More
Governments and corporations are tracking how we go about our lives with a unique marker that most of us cannot hide or change: our own faces. Across the country, communities are pushing back with laws that restrain this dangerous technology. In response, some governments and corporations are claiming that...
Pioneer Awards Ceremony 2021 Recap: Privacy Defenders Unite
On September 16, EFF held the 30th Annual Pioneer Award Ceremony, a yearly celebration of our digital heroes. The Barlows this year went to a selection of individuals who have worked to protect privacy in unique, impressive, and successful ways, from the streets of Harlem and Boston to Mumbai. If...
Bring on the Publicity Trolls: Federal Appeal Court Ruling Drastically Undermines Online Speech
In a disastrous ruling for online expression, innovation and competition, a federal appeals court has held that internet intermediaries are on the hook for expensive litigation and potential damages for violating a person’s “right of publicity,” (i.e., the right to control the commercial use of your persona). All because...
