EFF and ARTICLE 19 Submission to the European Commission on the DSA Trusted Flagger Guidelines
EFF and ARTICLE 19 have submitted joint comments to the European Commission on draft guidelines for the Digital Services Act’s trusted flagger mechanism. Having long advocated for…
Most Smart Watches, Rings, and Bands Lack Basic Transparency Reports and Key Privacy Features
Oura Rings, Garmin GPS fitness watches, Apple Watches, Whoop bands—every year, more and more tech devices are promising to monitor our health and fitness, guide us toward…
California Steps Back From Dangerous Expansion of its Age-Gating Law
The California legislature has stepped back from a plan that would have expanded its age-gating law, removing language that could have compounded serious threats to users’ speech,…
🚫 Don't Let Congress Age-Gate the Internet | EFFector 38.13
The effort to age gate the internet is back in Washington—and now it has a new name. Recently passed by the House of Representatives, the KIDS Act is a sprawling package of…
European Court: Apple Can Not Shirk Off its Interoperability Requirements
One of the best bulwarks against monopoly is interoperability—that is making a new product or service work with an existing product or service. Interoperability allows users, and…
Don’t Repeat NY’s 3D Printing Blunder
This year the state of New York had the dubious honor of being the first to pass a controversial provision to mandate all 3D printers come with surveillance and censorship. That…
Sony Nerfs Videogame Ownership
Legal intern Suzanne Castillo co-authored of this post. Playstation’s decision to kill physical game discs is the latest attack on our diminishing rights to access and engage with…
Building Our Future Together
In my first weeks as Executive Director of EFF, I’ve been reminded every day how consequential this moment is in determining what kind of future we will have. We are on the edge.…
Automated Moderation Is Here to Stay—Accountability Must Keep Pace
This post is part 2 in a series about automated content moderation. Read the first post here . When whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked a set of documents from Meta in 2020, among…
"We Want Texans to Know Their Rights": Q&A with Mayday Health on the Impact of Surveillance on Abortion Care
Last May, EFF reported that a sheriff’s office in Texas searched data from more than 83,000 automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras to track down a woman suspected of…
The House Passed The KIDS Act—The Senate Should Reject It
Last week, the House voted on the KIDS Act , a disjointed package of legislation that seeks to control Americans’ web browsing and private messaging. The package combines a…
European Commission Chooses to Keep EU Users Locked Up Behind Big Tech’s Gates
Users are always seeking more control over their social networking experience to make it better, whether to improve privacy or enhance flexibility. Interoperability between social…
Victory! Supreme Court Says Constitution Protects People’s Location Data
You have an expectation of privacy in location data that reveals your movements in the physical world, and even short-term surveillance of these movements is a search subject to…
The UK’s New Under-16 Social Media Ban Will Cause More Harm Than It Prevents
This week, politicians in the UK pushed forward with plans to eviscerate privacy and free speech on the internet by announcing a ban on social media for users under 16 that is set…
AI Regulation Should Be Rational, Not Retaliatory
The Trump administration’s approach to AI safety, particularly the generative AI models that regularly grab headlines, has been haphazard at best. At worst, it’s unconstitutional.…
How and Why to Fight Back Against Social Media Bans
Several U.S. states are pushing to ban young people from social media entirely. This marks the latest wave of censorship bills masquerading as “children’s online safety” measures,…
EFF and Allies: X’s FTC Petition to Waive Privacy Violation Order Should be Rejected
X Corp. should not be able to escape privacy compliance because it changed its name. On May 15, X Corp. filed a petition before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to set aside or…
Canada Is Forging Ahead with Its Dangerous Surveillance Bill
With no serious debate, including on proposed amendments, Canada is blazing full speed ahead with Bill C-22, which would threaten encryption and increase surveillance. Also known…
Yes to California's Bill to Ban Surveillance Pricing
Corporations harvest and monetize ever-growing amounts of our personal data, such as our browsing history and physical location . One bitter fruit of this poisonous tree is known…
EFFecting Change: LGBTQ+ Solidarity Against the Tide of Surveillance
LGBTQ+ communities are facing an escalating wave of censorship and targeted surveillance, but we can push back through mutual solidarity. Join us live to learn how safer virtual…
Google's New Remote Attestation Scheme is As Bad As Its Old One
Google owes its existence to the open web, but today, its technological “innovations” have much to do with locking users into a “walled garden.” The latest of these is “ reCAPTCHA…
EFF Thanks SerpApi For Helping Us Protect Free Speech Online
EFF is grateful for SerpApi ’s generous support, helping us fight for your rights to speak and access information online. SerpApi has been giving to EFF every year since 2018, and…
Hate “The Algorithm?” RSS Is One of the Tools You’ve Been Looking For
Poke your head into just about any online social network—or any general conversations about internet culture—and you’ll likely find a boogieman: the algorithm. Since at least the…
Four Years After Dobbs, Anti-Abortion Lawmakers Keep Coming for Online Speech
This week marks four years since Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade ’s constitutional protections for people seeking abortion care. Anniversaries…
🔊 Mass Surveillance for… Loud Music? | EFFector 38.11
Across the country, surveillance companies have spun a vast web of tens of thousands of license plate cameras. The people selling this tech want you to believe that it's for your…
Primed for Malware: Stop Selling Compromised Android Devices
Time and time again, researchers have found numerous compromised Android devices for sale at large online retailers like Amazon. When these devices get individually reported, we…
EFF, TEDIC and CEJIL Challenge Secrecy in the Use of Face Recognition in Paraguay
Seeking transparency and accountability in Paraguay’s use of facial recognition, EFF, the Association of Technology, Education, Development, Research, Communication (TEDIC), and…
The FCC’s Spam Call Proposal Is Just a Data Collection Scheme
The Federal Communications Commission wants to require telecommunications providers to collect vast amounts of personal information from every person who wants a phone number in…
The 702 Ultimatum: Warrant Requirement or Bust
For months now, Congress has been kicking the ball down the road— temporarily postponing the expiration of the mass surveillance authority Section 702 of FISA in hopes that some…
EFF to Grindr: This Pride Month, Put Safety and Privacy Over Profits
This Pride month, we’re calling on the dating app Grindr to prioritize LGBTQ+ user safety by making privacy the default across its platform. That means no more sharing personal…
Victory! 702 has Expired!
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act lets US intelligence agencies collect communications from foreigners abroad without a warrant, and routinely sweeps in…
We Can Still Stop California’s 3D Printer Surveillance Scheme
Ignoring EFF’s warnings about the dangers and impossibility of implementing a new mandate for 3D print surveillance software , the California State Assembly has signed off on…
🦅 Domestic Spying Takes an L | EFFector 38.12
Sold to the public as a foreign surveillance tool, Section 702 is the law has let intelligence agencies spy on millions of Americans’ private conversations without a warrant.…
Field Notes from a Year of OPSEC Training
Late last year, as part of our annual “Year in Review” series, we summarized our efforts providing digital privacy and security advice to at-risk communities. OPSEC trainings…
EFF Joins 60+ Groups Urging the UK to Halt Face Estimation at the Border
This week, EFF joined Foxglove, Human Rights Watch, and 60 other organizations in writing to the UK’s Minister of State for Border Security and Asylum, Alex Norris, raising…
VICTORY: Meta Strips Facial Recognition Code From Smart Glasses App After Public Outcry
Just days after a damning WIRED report exposed that Meta had quietly embedded facial recognition technology (FRT) code into millions of phones, the tech giant has quietly…
Help EFF Cut the AI Hype
In the global race to build and dominate the AI industry, it can sure seem like the interests of ordinary people sit last on the agenda. It's just the opposite for EFF. While…
LGBT Q&A: We’re Back With Season 2!
Last June during Pride, we launched a new initiative— LGBT Q&A —where we answered your most pressing queer-related digital rights questions on EFF’s Instagram and TikTok accounts.…
Congress Just Rushed Through a Disastrous Copyright Office Overhaul
In a voice vote earlier this week, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 6028 , the “Legislative Branch Agencies Clarification Act.” The legislation is presented as a technical…
LGBT Q&A: How Can I Wipe Online Data That Points To My Queer Identity?
This Pride, we’re answering all your digital rights questions in season two of our initiative, LGBT Q&A . You Asked: Is there a way for me to wipe data about me online that could…
LGBT Q&A: What Data Are Companies in the UK Collecting When Verifying My Age?
This Pride, we’re answering all your digital rights questions in season two of our initiative, LGBT Q&A . You Asked: I live in the UK, and we have age verification now on a bunch…
The NO FAKES Act Could Silence Satire, Commentary, And News
The NO FAKES Act is supposed to target harmful AI-generated impersonations. But in reality, it will make it easier to suppress commentary, satire, and other lawful speech. That's…
The KIDS Act Would Require Age Checks To Get Online
Within the next week, Congress is preparing to vote on the KIDS Act , a sprawling package of legislation that seeks to control Americans’ web browsing and private messaging. The…
Onward, Friends
After 26 years, today is my last day at EFF. It's been a terrific and wild ride — the organization has grown from a tiny band of fighty people trying to plant a flag for freedom…
‘News’ Site Keeps Hallucinating EFF Staffers
What do EFF staffers Sarah Chen , Javier Morales , Caitlin Chin , Emma Rodriguez , and Mikko Kopponen have in common? For one thing, they don’t exist. For another, all have been…
Lawmakers Must Act Now to Prevent Armed Police Drones
This is not science fiction. It’s not premature. If towns, cities, states, or the federal government want to act to rein in the emergence of armed police drones and robots , we…
Are Your Local Police Using Flock Safety ALPRs to Scan for Immigrants?
When a car passes an automated license plate reader (ALPR), its plate is captured and instantly compared against a list of vehicles that police are actively looking for or that…
A New Bill Takes Aim at Government Pressure to Silence Lawful Online Speech
Last week, Senators Ted Cruz and Ron Wyden introduced the Justice Against Weaponized Bureaucratic Overreach to Networked Expression, or JAWBONE Act . The bipartisan legislation…
The Free and Open Web Is Under Attack at the IETF
The ability to access publicly available information using automated tools is a central value and benefit of a free and open internet. Automated access—often called crawling or…
EFF to Gov. Pritzker: Veto Illinois’ HB 5511
The Illinois legislature recently passed House Bill 5511 , which imposes a sweeping, device-level age-gating framework across nearly all internet-enabled hardware, operating…
Court Records Should Be Free
Court records belong to the public. Yet anyone seeking access to federal court filings through PACER, a government software system that stands for Public Access to Court…
Tell Congress: Just Say No to NO FAKES
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to consider and vote on the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act (NO FAKES). Instead of targeting the real privacy…
Enshittification Merch That Actually Fights Enshittification
Enshittification isn't just a sweary word to describe the accelerating decay of the online platforms, apps, and services that we rely on. It's a framework for understanding the…
Cheers to the Winners of EFF’s 18th Annual Cyberlaw Trivia Night!
On a warm June evening in San Francisco, attorneys and other legally-minded friends of EFF gathered for our 18th Annual Cyberlaw Trivia Night, an annual test of tech-related legal…
Call for Submissions: Digital Pride
This Pride season, join EFF and the Queer Arts Collective in building a creative space at the intersection of digital justice and artistic expression. We’re looking for fresh,…