Update, February 14: Congress on February 14 introduced a new spending package with funding for increased surveillance. We are disappointed and remain concerned about the threat such technologies pose to civil liberties.Increased mass surveillance, including at the border, threatens everyone’s civil liberties. Yet some Congressional...

Governments around the world are grappling with the threat of terrorism, but their efforts aimed at curbing the dissemination of terrorist content online all too often result in censorship. Over the past five years, we’ve seen a number of governments—from the US Congress to that of France and...

Last month, it seemed like Europe had been saved from a dangerous attempt by corporate lobbyists to hijack copyright legislation in order to add a few points to their balance sheets, at the cost of a free, fair, open internet. Now, thanks to Germany's decision to turn its back...

UPDATE February 9 2019: Victory! These bills did not make it out of committee.Experts agree: Internet voting would be an information security disaster. Unfortunately, the Commonwealth of Virginia is considering a pair of bills to experiment with online voting. Pilot programs will do nothing to contradict the...

When EFF preaches about the benefits of using device encryption on smartphones, one of the most frequent questions we get is whether the police can force you to turn over your passcode or unlock the device. The answer should be no. The Fifth Amendment states that no one can...

Imagine this: an enormous tech company is tracking what you do on your phone, even when you’re not using any of its services, down to the specific images that you see. It’s also tracking all of your network traffic, because you’re installing one of its specially-designed routers. And even though...

Public Interest Advocates, Local Governments, and Others Defend the Open Internet OrderThe Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard the case of Mozilla v. FCC today to determine whether the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is allowed to repeal its net neutrality rules and abandon its authority over the broadband...

Once again, Facebook has broken the trust of its users—this time, through reportedly paying people to give up their privacy by installing an application that sucks up huge amounts of sensitive data, and explicitly sidestepping Apple's Enterprise Developer program rules. In doing so, the company has repeated several of...

In the smartphone era, “distracted driving” is a serious, and well-known, problem. Official warnings about poor driving habits are as old as the automobile itself. The New York Times published a Pulitzer-winning series on distracted driving back in 2009.Increasingly, technological assists are available for those seeking to manage...

Last year’s Brazilian elections were a victory for Jair Bolsonaro—a politician with highly controversial positions on the country's past military dictatorship and civil rights. Bolsonaro’s ascent to power and the beginning of his administration in January has attracted international attention for their potential impact on human rights....