The Vulnerabilities Equities Process is Unaccountable, Secretive, and Nonbinding
A group calling itself the Shadow Brokers recently released powerful surveillance tools publicly on the Web and promises to publish more dangerous tools for the price of one million bitcoin – or to whomever makes the best offer, if...

UPDATE (9/12/16): We have clarified that users have 30 days after they first see WhatsApp's privacy policy update to agree or not agree to its terms. We have also clarified that, while the new privacy policy permits WhatsApp to share contact lists with Facebook, no concrete plans to do so...

UPDATE (9/12/16): We have clarified that users have 30 days after they first see WhatsApp's privacy policy update to agree or not agree to its terms. We have also clarified that accounts created after August 25 join WhatsApp under the new privacy policy with no option to refuse the data...

In our previous piece about a leaked European impact assessment on copyright, we described how the foreshadowed changes to European copyright law would place onerous new responsibilities on Internet platforms to scan your uploaded content on behalf of large entertainment companies. We also described how the changes would give...

On August 30, 2016, the Patent Office issued U.S. Patent No. 9,430,468, titled; “Online peer review and method.” The owner of this patent is none other than Elsevier, the giant academic publisher. When it first applied for the patent, Elsevier sought very broad claims that could have covered a...

Imagine being convicted of a crime for logging into a friend's social media account with their permission? Or for logging into your spouse’s bank account to pay a bill, even though a pop-up banner appeared stating that only account holders were permitted to access the system? The Ninth Circuit Court...

Note: The updated datasets are now located on our California Database Catalogs hub. As of Oct. 4, 2016, the spreadsheets on this page will no longer be updated.
A team of over 40 transparency activists aimed their browsers at California this past weekend, collecting more than 400...

A just-leaked draft impact assessment on the modernization of European copyright rules could spell the end for many online services in Europe as we know them. The document's recommendations foreshadow new a EU Directive on copyright to be introduced later this year, that will ultimately bind each of the...

Across the country, civilian journalists have documented government violence using cell phones to record police activities, forcing a much-needed national discourse. But in case after case after case after case, the people who face penalties in the wake of police violence are the courageous and quick-witted...