TISA Proposes New Global Rules on Data Flows and Safe Harbors
Since the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) was signed and its text released earlier this year, preventing the passage of that agreement through Congress during its upcoming lame duck session has become a top priority. But there's another secretive trade agreement lurking out of sight and out of mind,...
U.N. Joins Critique of Proposed CBP Social Media Questions
Inside Intellectual Ventures' Portfolio: Nearly 500 University Patents
Harvard researcher Yarden Katz has just published some fascinating findings on which universities have sold patents to notorious patent-holding company Intellectual Ventures (IV). Of the nearly 30,000 active patents that IV lists publicly, 470 of them were originally assigned to universities—a total of 61 institutions.
...
Upload Filtering Mandate Would Shred European Copyright Safe Harbor
After months of study, European regulators have finally released the full and final proposal on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, and unfortunately it's full of ideas that will hurt users and the platforms on which they rely, in Europe and around the world. We've already written a fair bit...
EFF Celebrates Women in Tech, Today and Every Day
We believe in celebrating women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics every day, and today – Ada Lovelace Day – is no different. Named after visionary 19th century mathematician Ada Lovelace, today is an opportunity to recognize the achievements of women in the STEM fields.
Lovelace, who is credited...
How Big Pharma's Shadow Regulation Censors the Internet
Americans pay by far the highest prices in the world for most prescription drugs, and of course big pharma would like to keep it that way. Key measures that the industry relies upon in this regard are the Prescription Drug Marketing Act [PDF] and Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy...
No One Owns Invisible Disabilities
The purpose of registered trademarks is to protect people. When you buy a bottle of Club-Mate, the trademark affords you some certainty that what you’re buying is the product you already know and love and not that of a sneaky impostor. But when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office...
Google’s Allo Sends The Wrong Message About Encryption
When Google announced its new Allo messaging app, we were initially pleased to see the company responding to long-standing consumer demand for user-friendly, secure messaging. Unfortunately, it now seems that Google's response may cause more harm than good. While Allo does expose more users to end-to-end encrypted messaging, this potential...
Oversight Transition Isn't Giving Away the Internet, But Won't Fix ICANN's Problems
At midnight last Saturday morning, Washington DC time, oversight over the performance of ICANN's IANA functions—notably its maintenance of the root zone database of the Internet's domain name system (DNS)—passed from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to ICANN's global multi-stakeholder community.
Despite several weeks of heated...
Fair Processes, Better Outcomes
Yesterday we exposed the dangers of Shadow Regulation; the secretive web of backroom agreements between companies that seeks to control our behavior online, often driven by governments as a shortcut and less accountable alternative to regulation.
Today we are proposing a set of criteria, summarized in the infographic...








