ETS Isn't TLS and You Shouldn't Use It
The good news: TLS 1.3 is available, and the protocol, which powers HTTPS and many other encrypted communications, is better and more secure than its predecessors (including SSL). The bad news: Thanks to a financial industry group called BITS, there’s a look-alike protocol brewing called ETS (or...
More Consumer Data Privacy Hearings Without Enough Consumer Data Privacy Advocates
Last year, the U.S. Senate held a hearing about consumer privacy without a single voice for actual consumers. At the time, we were promised more hearings with more diverse voices. And while a hearing a month later with consumer advocates did seem to be a step forward, this...
Governments Must Face the Facts about Face Surveillance, and Stop Using It
It’s time for governments to confront the harmful consequences of using facial recognition technology as an instrument of surveillance. Yet law enforcement agencies across the country are purchasing face surveillance technology with insufficient oversight—despite the many ways it harms privacy and free speech and exacerbates racial injustice.EFF supports...
EFF Asks the Supreme Court to Clean Up the Oracle v. Google Mess
EFF has just filed an amicus brief in support of Google’s petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the long-running case of Oracle v. Google. The case asks whether functional aspects of computer programs are copyrightable, and...
Artists Against Article 13: When Big Tech and Big Content Make a Meal of Creators, It Doesn't Matter Who Gets the Bigger Piece
Article 13 is the on-again/off-again controversial proposal to make virtually every online community, service, and platform legally liable for any infringing material posted by their users, even very briefly, even if there was no conceivable way for the online service provider to know that a copyright infringement had...
Win in Washington State: Judge Strikes Down Unconstitutional ‘Cyberstalking’ Law Chilling Free Speech
Cyber-Mercenary Groups Shouldn't be Trusted in Your Browser or Anywhere Else
Update 2019-06-21: DarkMatter has renamed its CA business Digital Trust – Sole Proprietorship L.L.C. (“DigitalTrust”). The criticisms below still apply.DarkMatter, the notorious cyber-mercenary firm based in the United Arab Emirates, is seeking to become approved as a top-level certificate authority in Mozilla’s root certificate program. Giving...
What’s the Emergency? Keeping International Requests for Law Enforcement Access Secure and Safe for Internet Users
Law enforcement access to data is in the middle of a profound shake-up across the globe. States are pushing to get quicker, deeper, and more invasive access to personal data stored on the global Internet, and are looking to water down the international safeguards around privacy and due...
The Public Deserves a Return to the 2015 Open Internet Order
Congress is actively debating how to fix the FCC’s repeal of the net neutrality rules. But the first bills offered (H.R. 1101 (Walden), H.R. 1006 (Latta), and H.R. 1096 (McMorris Rodgers) focus narrowly on the “bright line” rules of no blocking, no throttling, and no paid prioritization....
The Worst Possible Version of the EU Copyright Directive Has Sparked a German Uprising
Last week's publication of the final draft of the new EU Copyright Directive baffled and infuriated almost everyone, including the massive entertainment companies that lobbied for it in the first place; the artists' groups who endorsed it only to have their interests stripped out of the final...
