New DOJ Policy on Gag Orders Is Good, But the Courts Could Have Done Better
The Department of Justice is making significant changes to its policy for seeking gag orders under Section 2705 of the Stored Communications Act. These orders routinely accompany search warrants, subpoenas, and other requests to service providers and prevent the companies from notifying users that their information has been obtained...
No Warrantless Searching of Our Emails, Chats, and Browser Data
Congress is poised to vote on extending or reforming NSA surveillance powers in the coming weeks, and one issue has risen to the forefront of the fight: backdoor searches. These are searches in which FBI, CIA, and NSA agents search through the communications of Americans collected by the NSA...
The USA Rights Act Protects Us From NSA Spying
A new bill introduced today in the Senate provides necessary protections from NSA surveillance programs. The USA Rights Act, introduced by Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and eleven other Senators would provide meaningful reforms to one of the government’s most powerful surveillance tools. It fixes the “backdoor search...
What if You Had to Worry About a Lawsuit Every Time You Linked to an Image Online?
A photographer and a photo agency are teaming up to restart a legal war against online linking in the United States.
When Internet users browse websites containing images, those images often are retrieved from third-parties, rather than the author of the website. Sometimes, unbeknownst to the website author, the...
EFF and ACLU Ask Appeals Court to Find Section 702 Surveillance Unconstitutional
As Congress considers reforming Section 702, the NSA’s warrantless surveillance authority, EFF and ACLU are asking a federal court of appeals in New York to find this surveillance unconstitutional. Section 702 allows the government to collect billions of electronic communications—including those of Americans—and to use these communications in criminal...
Public Money, Public Code: Show Your Support For Free Software in Europe
The global movement for open access to publicly-funded research stems from the sensible proposition that if the government has used taxpayers' money to fund research, the publication of the results of that research should be freely-licensed. Exactly the same rationale underpins the argument that software code that the government...
FBI Director Wray is Wrong About Section 702 Surveillance
Newly-minted FBI Director Christopher Wray threw out several justifications for the continued, warrantless government search of American communications. He’s wrong on all accounts.
In a presentation hosted by The Heritage Foundation, Wray warned of a metaphorical policy “wall” that, more than 15 years ago, stood between the U.S....
How Silicon Valley’s Dirty Tricks Helped Stall Broadband Privacy in California
Across the country, state lawmakers are fighting to restore the Internet privacy rights of their constituents that Congress and the President misguidedly repealed earlier this year. The facts and public opinion are on their side, but the recent battle to pass California’s broadband privacy bill, A.B. 375, suggests...
Portugal Bans Use of DRM to Limit Access to Public Domain Works
At EFF, we've become all too accustomed to bad news on copyright coming out of Europe, so it's refreshing to hear that Portugal has recently passed a law on copyright that helps to strike a fairer balance between users and copyright holders on DRM. The law doesn't abolish legal...
An Over-The-Top Approach to Internet Regulation in Developing Countries
Increased smartphone usage and availability of wireless broadband has propelled the use of Internet based platforms and services that often compete with similar services based on older technologies. For example services like Facebook, Skype and WhatsApp that offer voice or video calls over the Internet compete with traditional SMS and...
