New Street-Level Surveillance Project Tracks Spying Technologies Used by Local Law Enforcement

San Francisco – Responding to a troubling rise in law enforcement’s use of high-tech surveillance devices that are often hidden from the communities where they’re used, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today launched the Street-Level Surveillance Project (SLS), a Web portal loaded with comprehensive, easy-to-access information on police...

Coalition Announces New ‘Do Not Track’ Standard for Web Browsing

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), privacy company Disconnect and a coalition of Internet companies have announced a stronger “Do Not Track” (DNT) setting for Web browsing—a new policy standard that, coupled with privacy software, will better protect users from sites that try to secretly follow and record...

New EFF Tool Makes Emailing Congress Just a Few Clicks Away

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has created a new tool that makes emailing your congressional lawmakers a quick and easy process. Democracy.io simplifies and streamlines the current fractured system for contacting lawmakers, allowing you to message your two senators and your representative from a single website.
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Oscar and Pulitzer Award-Winning Journalist Laura Poitras Sues U.S. Government To Uncover Records After Years of Airport Detentions and Searches

Washington, D.C. ­– Academy and Pulitzer Prize Award-winning documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras sued the Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. transportation security agencies today demanding they release records documenting a six-year period in which she was searched, questioned, and often subjected to hours-long security screenings at U.S. and...

American Fights Ethiopian Government’s Illegal Use of Spyware in Court Tuesday

Washington, D.C. - On Tuesday, July 14, at 2 pm, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will urge a federal court to allow an American to proceed with his lawsuit against the Ethiopian government for infecting his computer with secret spyware, wiretapping his private calls, and monitoring his family’s every use...

EFF Lawsuits Seek Records About 'Hemisphere' Phone Call Collection and Drug Enforcement Program

San Francisco ­– The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today filed lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Justice and the California Attorney General’s office demanding records that shed light on a secret drug enforcement program that allows federal and local law enforcement agents to obtain citizens’ phone call records from AT&T.
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Tuesday Court Hearing Over Absurd Copyright Claim in Family Home Movie

San Francisco - On Tuesday, July 7, at 9 am, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will urge an appeals court in San Francisco to confirm that Internet users—from Ms. Lenz to remix artists to scholars to documentary filmmakers—have real protection against baseless content takedowns.
Lenz v. Universal is often...

EFF Report Charts Companies on Next Frontier of User Privacy

San Francisco - Our digital lives are leaving data trails through social networking sites, email providers, Internet service providers, and mobile apps. But which companies fight the hardest to protect their customers from government data grabs of this sensitive information? Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released its fifth annual...

EFF To Testify At Hearings To Expand DMCA Exemptions for Car Repair, Old Video Games, Jailbreaking, and Video Remixes

Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. - Experts from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will testify at public hearings held by the U.S. Copyright Office this week and next, urging officials to grant and expand critical exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The exemptions will secure the right to...

EFF Hails Court Ruling Rejecting NSA Bulk Collection of Americans' Phone Records

San Francisco - A federal appeals court today ruled that the NSA's bulk collection of phone records is illegal, saying Congress didn't authorize collection of a ''staggering'' amount of information on Americans. The decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S.Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit overturns...

New EFF ‘404’ Report Shows How Draconian Copyright Policies Stifle Online Speech Worldwide

San Francisco – Overly broad intellectual property (IP) laws in Russia, Colombia, and Pakistan—which U.S. trade regulators say aren’t tough enough—stifle access to innovation and threaten artists, students, and creators around the globe with prison, censorship, and state prosecution, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said in a new report released...

EFF Busts Podcasting Patent, Invalidating Key Claims at Patent Office

San Francisco - The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) invalidated key claims in the so-called “podcasting patent” today after a petition for review from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)—a decision that significantly curtails the ability of a patent troll to threaten podcasters big and small.
“We’re grateful for...

Human Rights Watch Sues DEA Over Bulk Collection of Americans’ Telephone Records

Los Angeles — Human Rights Watch, a nonpartisan organization that fights human rights abuses across the globe, filed suit against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration late Tuesday for illegally collecting records of its telephone calls to certain foreign countries as part of yet another government bulk surveillance program. The group...

International Coalition Launches 'Manila Principles' to Protect Freedom of Expression Worldwide

Manila - An international coalition launched the “Manila Principles for Intermediary Liability” today—a roadmap for the global community to protect online freedom of expression and innovation around the world.
“All communication across the Internet is facilitated by intermediaries: service providers, social networks, search engines, and more. These services are...

EFF, ACLU in Court to Fight for Release of Los Angeles License Plate Reader Data

Los Angeles - Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Senior Staff Attorney Jennifer Lynch will argue the public has a right to know how Los Angeles police are tracking their locations with automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) at a hearing before the California Court of Appeal in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
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EFF to Testify Thursday at Congressional Hearing on Patent Trolls

Washington, D.C. - Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Staff Attorney Vera Ranieri will testify Thursday at a congressional hearing on patent demand letters. Lawmakers will consider what they should do to reform the flawed patent system, which currently allows unscrupulous patent assertion entities, or trolls, to use unfair and deceptive demand...

Anonymous Companies Fighting National Security Letters Back Twitter’s NSL Battle

San Francisco - Two companies who must remain anonymous about their fight against secret government demands for information known as national security letters (NSLs) are backing Twitter's lawsuit over its rights to publish information about NSLs it may have received. The companies—a telecom and an Internet company—are represented by the...

EFF Files Petitions to Protect Your Rights to Tinker, Repair, and Remix

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed petitions with the U.S. Copyright Office seeking to keep users who remix DVD content or jailbreak their devices from losing their legal safe harbors and to establish new rights for those who need to circumvent "access control" or "digital rights management"...

EFF Files Supreme Court Amicus Brief Over Warrantless Searches of Hotel Records

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in a challenge brought by hotel owners against a Los Angeles city ordinance that allows police to access guest registers without consent, warrant, or other legal process. Supporting the hotel owners, EFF...

Battle Over Google Subpoena Threatens Critical Online Free Speech Protections

San Francisco - A high-profile battle over whether Google must respond to an unusual and dangerous subpoena raises fundamental concerns about federal free speech law and the protections it affords hosts of online content, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) argued in an amicus brief filed today.
Attorney General Jim...

EFF Wins Battle Over Secret Legal Opinions on Government Spying

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has won its four-year Freedom of Information Act lawsuit over secret legal interpretations of a controversial section of the Patriot Act, including legal analysis of law enforcement and intelligence agency access to census records.
The U.S. Department of Justice today filed...

Cory Doctorow Rejoins EFF to Eradicate DRM Everywhere

San Francisco - Leading digital rights champion and author Cory Doctorow has rejoined the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to battle the pervasive use of dangerous digital rights management (DRM) technologies that threaten users' security and privacy, distort markets, confiscate public rights, and undermine innovation.
Doctorow will be a special...

EFF in Court to Argue NSA Data Collection from Internet Backbone Is Unconstitutional

Oakland - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will argue on Friday before a federal court that the National Security Agency (NSA) is violating the Fourth Amendment by copying and searching data that it collects by tapping into the Internet backbone. The hearing on a motion for partial summary judgment in...

EFF Joins Dozens of Groups in Call for Transparency in Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks

Washington, D.C. - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has joined dozens of civil society groups from around the world in calling for the release of the secret text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)—a massive proposed trade agreement that could quash digital rights for Internet users everywhere in the name of...

Appeals Court Must Fix Dangerous 'Innocence of Muslims' Copyright Ruling

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a coalition of technology and free speech organizations are asking the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to fix a disastrously wrongheaded copyright ruling that required an online service provider to take offline—and keep offline—a controversial video that...

Appeals Court Rules in Favor of Anonymous Speech in California Prop. 35 Case

San Francisco - The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that Proposition 35, a 2012 California ballot initiative that would have restricted the rights of registered sex offenders to communicate on the Internet, is likely unconstitutional. The opinion affirms an earlier district court ruling in Doe v....

New, Free Certificate Authority to Dramatically Increase Encrypted Internet Traffic

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is helping to launch a new non-profit organization that aims to dramatically increase secure Internet browsing. Let's Encrypt is scheduled to offer free server certificates beginning in summer 2015.
"This project should boost everyday data protection for almost everyone who uses...

Computer Scientists Ask Supreme Court to Rule APIs Can’t Be Copyrighted

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a brief with the Supreme Court of the United States today, arguing on behalf of 77 computer scientists that the justices should review a disastrous appellate court decision finding that application programming interfaces (APIs) are copyrightable. That decision, handed...

EFF Fights for Common Sense, Again, in DMCA Rulemaking

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed six exemption requests with the U.S. Copyright Office today, part of the elaborate, every-three-year process to right the wrongs put in place by the Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). EFF's requests received crucial assistance from the Organization...

Media Alert: EFF, ACLU to Present Oral Argument in NSA Spying Case on Nov. 4

Washington, D.C. - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will appear before a federal appeals court next week to argue the National Security Agency (NSA) should be barred from its mass collection of telephone records of million of Americans. The hearing in Klayman v. Obama is set for 9:30 am on...

Protect Yourself from Electronic Spying with 'Surveillance Self-Defense'

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) launched its updated "Surveillance Self-Defense" report today, a comprehensive how-to guide to protecting yourself from electronic spying for Internet users all over the world.
"Everyone has something to protect, whether its from the government or stalkers or data-miners," said EFF International...

EFF, Internet Archive, and reddit Oppose New York’s BitLicense Proposal

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), along with reddit and the Internet Archive, today filed formal comments with the New York State Department of Financial Services opposing the state's proposed regulations for digital currencies such as Bitcoin. In the letter, EFF argues that on top of damaging...

EFF Launches IFightSurveillance.org and Counter-Surveillance Success Stories

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today launched IFightSurveillance.org, a new site showcasing digital privacy advocates from around the world who are leading the fight against mass surveillance. The site includes figures from the organization's growing list of Counter-Surveillance Success Stories, a set of guides showing...

Media Alert: Oral Arguments in EFF’s National Security Letter Case

Update: The court announced early Wednesday that it will not livestream the audio of the NSL case. Audio available here http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/view.php?pk_id=0000013407.
San Francisco, CA - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will urge a federal appeals court next week to uphold a groundbreaking ruling that the National Security Letter (NSL)...

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