Daycare and Early Childhood Education Apps: 2022 in Review
Last year, several parents at EFF enrolled kids into daycare and were instantly told to download an application for managing their children’s care. These applications frequently include notifications of feedings, diaper changes, pictures, activities, and who picked-up/dropped-off the child—potentially useful features for overcoming separation anxiety of newly enrolled children and...
Here's How Apple Could Open Its App Store Without Really Opening Its App Store
And what we can do about it.With this year’s passage of the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), very large online platforms - those with EU revenues of €75 billion or more and at least 45 million EU users - will have to open up their devices to rival app...
The Fediverse Could Be Awesome (If We Don’t Screw It Up)
This post is part of a series on Mastodon and the fediverse. We also have a post on what the fediverse is, security and privacy on Mastodon, and how to make a Mastadon account. You can follow EFF on Mastodon here.Something remarkable is happening. For the...
The Rise of the Police-Advertiser
In August, the Tulsa police department held a press conference about how its new Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs), a controversial piece of surveillance technology, was the policing equivalent of “turning the lights on” for the first time. In Ontario, California, the city put out a press...
Better Regulating Drone Use Requires Communication, Not Surveillance
In 2018, Congress gave the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security sweeping new authorities to destroy or commandeer privately-owned drones, as well as intercept the data it sends and receives. EFF objected to The Preventing Emerging Threats Act of 2018 (S. 2836, H.R. 6401) because, among other things, the...
The Internet Is Not Facebook: Why Infrastructure Providers Should Stay Out of Content Policing
Cloudflare’s recent headline-making decision to refuse its services to KiwiFarms—a site notorious for allowing its users to wage harassment campaigns against trans people—is likely to lead to more calls for infrastructure companies to police online speech. Although EFF would shed no tears at the loss of KiwiFarms (which is still...
Get to Know the EFA: Digital Fourth
Electronic Frontier Alliance member Digital Fourth—also known as Restore the Fourth Boston—has been instrumental in passing surveillance oversight ordinances in the greater Boston area since 2018. Digital Fourth advocates for Fourth Amendment rights in Massachusetts. The Fourth Amendment protects people in the U.S. from “unreasonable searches and seizures”...
Google’s Perilous Plan for a Cloud Center in Saudi Arabia is an Irresponsible Threat to Human Rights
On August 9, a Saudi woman was sentenced to 34 years in prison by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s notorious specialized criminal court in Riyadh. Her crime? Having a Twitter account and following and retweeting dissidents and activists.That same day, a federal jury in San Francisco convicted ...
Study of Electronic Monitoring Smartphone Apps Confirms Advocates’ Concerns of Privacy Harms
Researchers at the University of Washington and Harvard Law School recently published a groundbreaking study analyzing the technical capabilities of 16 electronic monitoring (EM) smartphone apps used as “alternatives” to criminal and civil detention. The study, billed as the “first systematic analysis of the electronic monitoring apps ecosystem,” confirmed...
San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors Grants Police More Surveillance Powers
In a 4-7 vote, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors passed a 15-month pilot program granting the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) more live surveillance powers. This was despite the objections of a diverse coalition of community groups and civil rights organizations, residents, the Bar Association of San Francisco, and even...
