California Bill Would Guarantee Free Credit Freezes in 15 Minutes
After the shocking news of the massive Equifax data breach, which has now ballooned to jeopardize the privacy of nearly 148 million people, many Americans are rightfully scared and struggling to figure out how to protect themselves from the misuse of their personal information. To protect against credit fraud,...
Net Neutrality Did Not Die Today
When the FCC’s “Restoring Internet Freedom Order,” which repealed net neutrality protections the FCC had previously issued, was published on February 22nd, it was interpreted by many to mean it would go into effect on April 23. That’s not true, and we still don’t know when the previous net...
Stupid Patent of the Month: Suggesting Reading Material
Online businesses—like businesses everywhere—are full of suggestions. If you order a burger, you might want fries with that. If you read Popular Science, you might like reading Popular Mechanics. Those kinds of suggestions are a very old part of commerce, and no one would seriously think it’s a patentable technology.Except,...
We’re in the Uncanny Valley of Targeted Advertising
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO, thinks people want targeted advertising. The “overwhelming feedback,” he said multiple times during his congressional testimony, was that people want to see “good and relevant” ads. Why then are so many Facebook users, including leaders of state in the U.S. Senate...
Minnesota Supreme Court Ruling Will Help Shed Light on Police Use of Biometric Technology
A decision by the Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday will help the public learn more about how law enforcement use of privacy invasive biometric technology.The decision in Webster v. Hennepin County is mostly good news for the requester in the case, who sought the public records as part of...
Dear Canada: Accessing Publicly Available Information on the Internet Is Not a Crime
Update: Canadian authorities announced on May 7 that they dropped all charges against the teen they had previously accused of unauthorized use of a computer service for downloading public records from a government website. Canadian authorities should drop charges against a 19-year-old Canadian accused of “unauthorized use of a...
A Little Help for Our Friends
In periods like this one, when governments seem to ignore the will of the people as easily as companies violate their users’ trust, it’s important to draw strength from your friends. EFF is glad to have allies in the online freedom movement like the Internet Archive. Right now,...
Patent Office Throws Out GEMSA’s Stupid Patent on a GUI For Storage
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has issued a ruling [PDF] invalidating claims from US Patent No. 6,690,400, which had been the subject of the June 2016 entry in our Stupid Patent of the Month blog series. The patent owner, Global Equity Management (SA) Pty Ltd. (GEMSA),...
New York Judge Makes the Wrong Call on Stingray Secrecy
A New York judge has ruled that the public and the judiciary shouldn’t second-guess the police when it comes to secret snooping on the public with intrusive surveillance technologies.He couldn’t be more wrong. A core part of EFF’s mission is questioning the decisions of our law enforcement and intelligence...
Hearing Monday in Groundbreaking Lawsuit Over Border Searches of Laptops and Smartphones
Boston – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) will appear in federal court in Boston Monday, fighting the U.S. government’s attempts to block their lawsuit over illegal laptop and smartphone searches at the country’s borders. The case, Alasaad v. Nielsen, was filed last fall...
