The FCC’s Net Neutrality Order Was Just Published, Now the Fight Really Begins
Today, the FCC’s so-called “Restoring Internet Freedom Order,” which repealed the net neutrality protections the FCC had previously created with the 2015 Open Internet Order, has been officially published. That means the clock has started ticking on all the ways we can fight back.
While the rule is...
When the Copyright Office Meets, the Future Needs a Seat at the Table
Every three years, EFF's lawyers spend weeks huddling in their offices, composing carefully worded pleas we hope will persuade the Copyright Office and the Librarian of Congress to grant Americans a modest, temporary permission to use our own property in ways that are already legal.
Yeah, we think that's...
The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation
In the coming decades, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies are going to transform many aspects of our world. Much of this change will be positive; the potential for benefits in areas as diverse as health, transportation and urban planning, art, science, and cross-cultural understanding are enormous. We've already...
Did Congress Really Expect Us to Whittle Our Own Personal Jailbreaking Tools?
In 1998, Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and profoundly changed the relationship of Americans to their property.
Section 1201 of the DMCA bans the bypassing of "access controls" for copyrighted works. Originally, this meant that even though you owned your DVD player, and even though it...
"FREE from Chains!": Eskinder Nega is Released from Jail
Eskinder Nega, one of Ethiopia's most prominent online writers, winner of the Golden Pen of Freedom in 2014, the International Press Institute's World Press Freedom Hero for 2017, and PEN International's 2012 Freedom to Write Award, has been finally set free.
New National Academy of Sciences Report on Encryption Asks the Wrong Questions
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) released a much-anticipated report yesterday that attempts to influence the encryption debate by proposing a “framework for decisionmakers.” At best, the report is unhelpful. At worst, its framing makes the task of defending encryption harder.The report collapses the question of whether the government...
EFF and MuckRock Are Filing a Thousand Public Records Requests About ALPR Data Sharing
EFF and MuckRock have a launched a new public records campaign to reveal how much data law enforcement agencies have collected using automated license plate readers (ALPRs) and are sharing with each other.
Over the next few weeks, the two organizations are filing approximately 1,000 public records requests with...
Federal Judge Says Embedding a Tweet Can Be Copyright Infringement
Rejecting years of settled precedent, a federal court in New York has ruled [PDF] that you could infringe copyright simply by embedding a tweet in a web page. Even worse, the logic of the ruling applies to all in-line linking, not just embedding tweets. If adopted by other...
The False Teeth of Chrome's Ad Filter
Today Google launched a new version of its Chrome browser with what they call an "ad filter"—which means that it sometimes blocks ads but is not an "ad blocker." EFF welcomes the elimination of the worst ad formats. But Google's approach here is a band-aid response to the crisis of...
Customs and Border Protection's Biometric Data Snooping Goes Too Far
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Privacy Office, and Office of Field Operations recently invited privacy stakeholders—including EFF and the ACLU of Northern California—to participate in a briefing and update on how the CBP is implementing its Biometric Entry/Exit Program.
As we’ve written...











