Help Bring Dark Patterns To Light
Coalition Launches ‘Dark Patterns’ Tip Line to Expose Deceptive Technology Design
San Francisco – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has joined Consumer Reports, Access Now, PEN America, and DarkPatterns.org in launching the “Dark Patterns Tip Line”—a project for the public to submit examples of deceptive design patterns they see in technology products and services.“Dark patterns” design tactics are used to...
Lawsuit Against Snapchat Rightfully Goes Forward Based on “Speed Filter,” Not User Speech
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has allowed a civil lawsuit to move forward against Snapchat, a smartphone social media app, brought by the parents of three teenage boys who died tragically in a car accident after reaching a maximum speed of 123 miles per hour....
EFF tells California Court that Forensic Software Source Code Must Be Disclosed to the Defendant
President Biden Revokes Unconstitutional Executive Order Retaliating Against Online Platforms
President Joe Biden on Friday rescinded a dangerous and unconstitutional Executive Order issued by President Trump that threatened internet users’ ability to obtain truthful information online and retaliated against services that fact-checked the former president. The Executive Order called on multiple federal agencies to punish private online social media...
Victory! California City Drops Lawsuit Accusing Journalists of Violating Computer Crime Law
The City of Fullerton, California has abandoned a lawsuit against two bloggers and a local website. The suit dangerously sought to expand California’s computer crime law in a way that threatened investigative reporting and everyday internet use.The city’s lawsuit against the bloggers and the website Friends For Fullerton’s...
Governor Newsom’s Budget Proposes Historic Investment in Public Fiber Broadband
This morning, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced his plans for the state’s multi-billion dollar surplus and federal recovery dollars, including a massive, welcome $7 billion investment in public broadband infrastructure. It's a plan that would give California one of the largest public broadband fiber networks in the country. The...
How A Camera Patent Was Used to Sue Non-Profits, Cities, and Public Schools
Stupid Patent of the MonthPatent trolls are everyone’s problem. A study from 2019 showed that 32% of patent troll lawsuits are directed at small and medium-sized businesses. We told the stories of some of those small businesses in our Saved by Alice project.But some patent trolls go even...
How Your DNA—or Someone Else’s—Can Send You to Jail
Although DNA is individual to you—a “fingerprint” of your genetic code—DNA samples don’t always tell a complete story. The DNA samples used in criminal prosecutions are generally of low quality, making them particularly complicated to analyze. They are not very concentrated, not very complete, or are a mixture of multiple...
FAQ: DarkSide Ransomware Group and Colonial Pipeline
With the attack on Colonial Pipeline by a ransomware group causing panic buying and shortages of gasoline on the US East Coast, many are left with more questions than answers to what exactly is going on. We have provided a short FAQ to the most common technical questions that are...
