Supreme Court Upholds Process to Challenge Bad Patents
The Patent Office grants thousands of patents a year, including many that would be invalidated if a court considered them. These junk patents should never be issued in the first place, but fortunately there is a way to challenge them at the Patent Office rather than wasting the courts’ time...
A Long Overdue Reckoning For Online Proctoring Companies May Finally Be Here
Understanding Amazon Sidewalk
Just before the long weekend at the end of May, Amazon announced the release of their Sidewalk mesh network. There are many misconceptions about what it is and what it does, so this article will untangle some of the confusion.It Isn’t Internet SharingMuch of the press about Amazon Sidewalk...
Congress Wants to Put the Brakes on Runaway Acquisitions by Big Tech
The Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives recently released a comprehensive series of bills designed to curb the excesses of Big Tech. One of them, the Platform Competition and Opportunity Act, addresses one of the biggest, most obvious problems among the largest tech companies: that they use...
The New ACCESS Act Is a Good Start. Here’s How to Make Sure It Delivers.
Changing Section 230 Won’t Make the Internet a Kinder, Gentler Place
Tech platforms, especially the largest ones, have a problem—there’s a lot of offensive junk online. Many lawmakers on Capitol Hill keep coming back to the same solution—blaming Section 230.What lawmakers don’t notice is that a lot of the people posting that offensive junk get stopped, again and...
Emails from 2016 Show Amazon Ring's Hold on the LAPD Through Camera Giveaways
In March 2016, “smart” doorbell camera maker Ring was a growing company attempting to market its wireless smart security camera when it received an email from an officer in the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Gang and Narcotics Division, who was interested in purchasing a slew of devices.The Los...
22 Rights Groups Tell PayPal and Venmo to Shape Up Policies on Account Closures
San Francisco – Nearly two dozen rights groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), have joined together to tell PayPal and its subsidiary Venmo to shape up its policies on account freezes and closures, as its opaque practices are interfering with payment systems connected to many First-Amendment protected activities.“Companies like...
Unconstitutional Florida Law Barring Platforms from Suspending Politicians Should be Blocked, EFF Tells Court
Tallahassee, Florida—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Protect Democracy urged a federal judge to strike down Florida’s law banning Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms from suspending political candidates’ accounts, saying it unconstitutionally interferes with the First Amendment rights of the companies and their users, and forces companies to give politicians’...
Hearing Tuesday: EFF Testifies Against SFPD for Violating Transparency Policies
San Francisco – On Tuesday, June 15, at 5:30 pm PT, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will testify against the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) at the city’s Sunshine Ordinance Task Force committee meeting. EFF has registered a complaint against the SFPD for withholding records about a controversial investigation involving...
