When Congress passed the USA FREEDOM Act in 2015 as part of the country’s reckoning with the post-9/11 surveillance state, comparably little attention was paid to amendments the law made to national security letters (NSLs). At the time, EFF said that these changes stopped far short of the NSL...

In 2016 we witnessed the latest stretch in an ongoing struggle over the shape of copyright law and who it serves - between a law that respects and promotes innovation and free expression, and one that only serves the interests of large copyright holders. This year we welcomed a run...

"Sharing" or "gig economy" companies like Uber and Airbnb continued to grow in 2016, meaning their data protection and privacy practices came into sharp focus as millions of Americans turned to these young companies for everything from rides to the airport to renting an apartment instead of a hotel room.
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Year after year, federal agencies worked behind the scenes to thwart any attempt to reform the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In 2016, Congress finally came through and successfully amended the 50-year-old transparency statute with the goal of improving our ability to oversee our government.
For FOIA’s golden...

Patent trolls were down but certainly not out in 2016. After a massive burst of litigation at the end of last year, we saw a noticeable drop in patent troll lawsuits at the start of this one. But trolls began returning to court as the year continued...

It’s been a busy year on a number of fronts as we continue to fight to rein in the National Security Agency’s sweeping surveillance of innocent people. Since the 2013 leaks by former government contractor Edward Snowden, the secretive and powerful agency has been at the top of mind for...

EFF spends a lot of time investigating the latest trends and developments in technology, trying to stay one step ahead of the most recent threats to your digital rights. This isn’t one of those stories. This is a story about a technology that’s even older than our organization, that’s barely...