Fifth Amendment Prohibits Compelled Decryption, New EFF Brief Argues
Encryption is one of the most important ways to safeguard data from prying eyes. But what happens when those prying belong to the government? Can they force you to break your own encryption and provide them with the information they want?
In a new amicus brief, we explain...
EFF Asks Court to Review California's Warrantless DNA Collection Anew
When it comes to searching the most sensitive part of our bodies—our DNA—the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures should be a strong bulwark, keeping the government out of our most personal and private biological information. But in the last few years, those protections have been eroded as...
Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer Files Response to Government's Brief
Our latest brief in the ongoing effort to reverse Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer's conviction and sentence under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ("CFAA") was filed on Friday.
In 2010, Auernheimer's co-defendant Daniel Spitler discovered that AT&T configured its website to automatically publish an iPad user's e-mail...
Third Circuit Agrees With EFF: Warrant Required to Track a Car With GPS
You might think that if the US Supreme Court's ruling that a GPS device was a "search," the inevitable conclusion is that police would need a warrant to install a GPS device on a car. After all, warrantless searches are per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment (except...
EFF Brief Argues Police Need Search Warrant to Read Text Messages
As text messages become a universal method for personal communication across the country, courts are struggling with applying quill-era Fourth Amendment principles to the modern form of communication. A new amicus brief we filed in a case before the Rhode Island Supreme Court explains that no...
EFF Files Brief to Reveal the DEA's Secret Use of Electronic Surveillance in Criminal Cases
Given the recent revelations about just how pervasive the government's electronic surveillance has been, it's no surprise these surveillance programs are popping up in criminal cases, as defense attorneys are finding gaps in how the government collected particular pieces of electronic evidence on their clients. A new amicus brief...
New Amicus Brief Urges Massachusetts to Require Warrants for Cell Tracking
As the highest court in Massachusetts considers whether cell-site data is private in the context of the Fourth Amendment, we filed an amicus brief arguing that when the police want to be able to recreate your every step—figuring out your patterns of movement, where you've been and with...
Judge Fines Copyright Troll Lawyer for Harassing Tactic Used Nationwide
One by one, courts are recognizing and shutting down copyright trolls' most unscrupulous legal tactics. Last week, a federal court in Wisconsin sanctioned a lawyer for adult film producer Malibu Media (also known as X-Art) for filing lists of "disturbing lewd, unusual and unredacted titles of pornographic films allegedly...
What the Google Street View Decision Means for Researchers (and Cops)
Is a Wi-Fi signal the equivalent of an FM radio station, blasting classic rock ballads through your car speakers?
Not to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which issued its long awaited decision in Joffe v. Google this week, the case where Google was sued for allegedly violating...
EFF Amicus Asks Supreme Court to Review Warrantless Smartphone Searches
Are police allowed to rummage through the contents of a cell phone when a person is arrested? The U.S. Supreme Court is currently deciding whether to grant review in two cases involving the thorny issue. Together with the Center for Democracy and Technology, we've filed an amicus...





