Just a little more than two years ago, the world witnessed the overthrow of three North African dictators and ensuing protests across much of the Arab world on television and social media, the latter of which was much lauded as a catalyzing tool. But while 2011 was a time of...

Recently, we published a blog post that described how to opt out of seeing ads on Facebook targeted to you based on your offline activities. This post explained where these companies get their data, what information they share with Facebook, or what this means for your privacy.
So...

In a hearing earlier today on the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), Representative Mike Rogers dismissed the opposition to the bill. He compared opponents of the bill to a "14 year old" tweeting in a basement (watch the video).
The Internet responded - tweeting directly...

If you are 17 or under, a federal prosecutor could have charged you with computer hacking just for reading Seventeen magazine online—until today.
It’s not because the law got any better. Earlier today, we wrote about news sites that alarmingly prohibit their youth audiences from accessing...

Alaa Abd El Fattah is under threat again. The Egyptian blogger, who spent more than a month in prison in 2011, missing the birth of his first child, has found himself the target of a new case. Last week, Abd El Fattah went voluntarily to the office of the...

In Bangladesh, where just last month well-known blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider was murdered in the street, and where have been on the rise, the latest news is that three bloggers have been detained for allegedly demeaning Islam and the Prophet Mohammed on their blogs....

Law professor and historian Tim Wu has called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) the “worst law in technology.” The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has described the government’s interpretation of it “expansive,” “broad,” and “sweeping.” And Orin Kerr, former federal prosecutor and law professor, has...

EFF is pleased to learn that Oman's monarch, Sultan Qaboos, has pardoned "all dissidents jailed for defaming the ruler or taking part in protests." According to the Reuters news agency, "His Majesty Sultan Qaboos has issued a royal pardon for those convicted of defamation, information technology crimes and...

EFF has long called on companies to publish the number and type of government demands they receive for user data. We think it's important enough to be one of the stars we award in our Who Has Your Back? campaign started in 2010. Users make decisions every day about...

This article has been written by Katitza Rodriguez (EFF) and Olivia Solis (SHARE Defense)
Google's Transparency Report gives country-by-country statistics on the state requests it receives for personal private records. Below, EFF and SHARE Defense ranked the top countries requesting data—not by the total numbers of requests,...