The Government’s Antitrust Suit Against Google: Go Big and Do It Right
U.S. antitrust enforcers are reported to be crafting a lawsuit against Google (and its parent company, Alphabet). The Department of Justice and a large coalition of state attorneys general are meeting this week and could file suit very soon. While it will reportedly focus on Google’s dominance in online...
Students Are Pushing Back Against Proctoring Surveillance Apps
Special thanks to legal intern Tracy Zhang, who was lead author of this post.Privacy groups aren’t the only ones raising the alarm about the dangers of invasive proctoring apps. Through dozens of petitions across the country, and the globe, students too are pushing school administrators and teachers to consider...
How Police Fund Surveillance Technology is Part of the Problem
Law enforcement agencies at the federal, state, and local level are spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year on surveillance technology in order to track, locate, watch, and listen to people in the United States, often targeting dissidents, immigrants, and people of color. EFF has written tirelessly about the...
The Time Has Come to End the PACER Paywall
In a nation ruled by law, access to public court records is essential to democratic accountability. Thanks to the Internet and other technological innovations, that access should be broader and easier than ever. The PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) system could and should play a crucial role in...
EFF, CDT Sue Government To Obtain Records About Federal Agencies Pulling Advertising From Platforms
Washington, D.C.—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the government to obtain records showing whether federal agencies have cut their advertising on social media as part of President Trump’s broad attack on...
Exposing Your Face Isn't a More Hygienic Way to Pay
A company called PopID has created an identity-management system that uses face recognition. Their first use case is as a system for in-store, point of sale payments using face recognition as authorization for payment.They are promoting it as a tool for restaurants, claiming that it is pandemic-friendly because...
A Look-Back and Ahead on Data Protection in Latin America and Spain
We're proud to announce a new updated version of The State of Communications Privacy Laws in eight Latin American countries and Spain. For over a year, EFF has worked with partner organizations to develop detailed questions and answers (FAQs) around communications privacy laws. Our work builds upon previous and...
Three Interactive Tools for Understanding Police Surveillance
This post was written by Summer 2020 Intern Jessica Romo, a student at the Reynolds School of Journalism at University of Nevada, Reno. As law enforcement and government surveillance technology continues to become more and more advanced, it has also become harder for everyday people to avoid. Law enforcement...
Plaintiffs Continue Effort to Overturn FOSTA, One of the Broadest Internet Censorship Laws
Special thanks to legal intern Ross Ufberg, who was lead author of this post.A group of organizations and individuals are continuing their fight to overturn the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, known as FOSTA, arguing that the law violates the Constitution in multiple respects.In ...
EFF Joins Coalition Urging Senators to Reject the EARN IT Act
Recently, EFF joined the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and 26 other organizations to send a letter to the Senate opposing the EARN IT Act (S. 3398), asking that the Senate oppose fast tracking the bill, and to vote NO on passage of the bill.As we have ...
