Location Tracking: A Pervasive Problem in Modern Technology
We've just seen some amazing reports from the Washington Post about just a few ways NSA is tracking people around the Internet and the physical world. These newly-revealed techniques hijacked personal information that was being transmitted for some commercial purpose, converting it into a tool for surveillance. One technique...
NSA Turns Cookies (And More) Into Surveillance Beacons
Yesterday, we learned that the NSA is using Google cookies—the same cookies used for advertisements and search preferences—to track users for surveillance purposes.
These Google cookies—known as “PREF” cookies—last two years and can uniquely identify you. Sniffing one off the Internet as it goes past allows the...
As Outrage Over Cell Phone Tracking Grows, EFF Amicus Asks for Warrant Requirement
Alarming information about just how frequently law enforcement officials across the country (not to mention the NSA) are trying to get cell phone data, including your location, seem to be published in the news media every day. With these privacy concerns in mind, last week we filed an ...
Hey Obama: No Snooping on Our Email Without a Warrant
Here’s the deal: right now, there’s a petition demanding reform to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (known by its acronym, ECPA), a would-be privacy law passed in 1986. The Justice Department has argued this outdated law gives them the right to read your old emails and the documents you store...
TPP Won't Wrap Up This Year, But Fast Track Remains a Threat
Despite the U.S. Trade Representative's concerted efforts to push through a deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) will not be completed by the self-imposed deadline of the end of this year. That announcement, made in Singapore today at a closed press conference, is welcome: the U.S. Trade Representative's...
The FAA Creates Thin Privacy Guidelines For The Nation's First Domestic Drone "Test Sites"
Commercial unmanned aerial systems are set to start flying over US airspace in 2015. In November, the Federal Aviation Administration released its final privacy rules for the six drone “test sites” that the agency will use to evaluate how drones will be integrated into domestic air traffic. These new...
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Eight Tech Giants Call for Reform to Surveillance Law
Today, there are full-page advertisements running in the New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, Roll Call, and The Hill. They all have the same message: big tech companies are calling on Congress to rein in the mass surveillance. You can read the full message on the newly-launched Reform Government...
EFF Asks Supreme Court to Expand Fee Shifting in Patent Cases
Today, EFF—along with Engine, the App Developers Alliance, and Public Knowledge—filed a brief asking the Supreme Court to retain some sanity in the law and tighten up the rules around fee shifting. Fee shifting, sometimes called "loser pays," is already in the Patent Act. While the...
No More Downtime for Free Speech: EFF Helps People for the American Way Challenge DMCA Abuser
For several weeks now, former Navy chaplain and Colorado Assembly candidate Gordon Klingenschmitt has been on a campaign to shut down the YouTube account of People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch (“RWW”) project. RWW reports and comments on the political views of folks like Klingenschmitt, using...
