Human Rights Watch Reverse-Engineers Mass Surveillance App Used by Police in Xinjiang
For years, Xinjiang has been a testbed for the Chinese government’s novel digital and physical surveillance tactics, as well as human rights abuses. But there is still a lot that the international human rights community doesn’t know, especially when it comes to post-2016 Xinjiang. Last Wednesday, Human Rights Watch...
San Francisco: Stop Secret Spy Tech and Face Surveillance
Government use of many surveillance technologies, and especially face surveillance, can invade privacy and chill free speech. It also disproportionately harms already marginalized communities: it increases the likelihood that they will be entangled with police, ICE, and other agencies with a history of abuse, bias, and unlawful violence.San Francisco’s Board...
EFF to Tenth Circuit: First Amendment Protects Right to Record Police
The First Amendment protects the public’s right to use electronic devices to record on-duty police officers, EFF argued in an amicus brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The case, Frasier v. Evans, was brought by Levi Frasier against five Denver police officers for...
California: Tell the Senate To Empower You To Protect Your Own Privacy
Californians have a constitutional right to privacy, and 94 percent of Californians agree they should be able to take companies that violate their privacy to court.S.B. 561, authored by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, would provide consumers with that right and also improve existing tools for the state attorney...
Media Alert: Court Hearing Monday for Redditor Fighting to Stay Anonymous
San Francisco – On Monday, May 6 at 11am, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will argue that a San Francisco court should quash a subpoena from the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society aimed at getting the identity of an anonymous Reddit commenter.Watch Tower is the supervising body and...
Censorship Can't Be The Only Answer to Disinformation Online
With measles cases on the rise for the first time in decades and anti-vaccine (or “anti-vax”) memes spreading like wildfire on social media, a number of companies—including Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, and GoFundMe—recently banned anti-vax posts.But censorship cannot be the only answer to disinformation online. The...
Section 230 Is Not A Special “Tech Company” Immunity
Members of Congress are fond of wrongly calling Section 230 (47 U.S.C. § 230) a “big tech company” immunity, implying that it doesn’t protect anyone else. And they are not alone in this mistake. We frequently hear the same mischaracterization from friends in academia and legacy news media. The characterization...
We Got U.S. Border Officials to Testify Under Oath. Here’s What We Found Out
This is a guest post by Hugh Handeyside, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project, Nathan Freed Wessler, Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, and Esha Bhandari, Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. It was originally posted on the ACLU Speak Freely...
New Documents Reveal DHS Asserting Broad, Unconstitutional Authority to Search Travelers’ Phones and Laptops
BOSTON — The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the ACLU today asked a federal court to rule without trial that the Department of Homeland Security violates the First and Fourth Amendments by searching travelers’ smartphones and laptops at airports and other U.S. ports of entry without a warrant.The request...
Media Alert: Court Hearing Wednesday on Law Enforcement Retention of DNA Profiles from Innocent Californians
Update: the time for this hearing has changed. It now begins at 1:30pm.San Francisco – At 1:30 pm on Wednesday, May 1, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Law Office of Michael T. Risher will argue against the government’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging law enforcement retention of...
