How Push Notifications Can Betray Your Privacy (and What to Do About It)
A phone’s push notifications can contain a significant amount of information about you, your communications, and what you do throughout the day. They’re important enough to…
EFF 🤝 HOPE: Join Us This August!
Protecting privacy and free speech online takes more than policy work—it takes community. Conferences like HOPE are where that community comes together to learn, connect, and push…
Google Broke Its Promise to Me. Now ICE Has My Data.
In September 2024, Amandla Thomas-Johnson was a Ph.D. candidate studying in the U.S. on a student visa when he briefly attended a pro-Palestinian protest. In April 2025,…
EFF Calls on Kuwait to Release Journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin
EFF calls on the Kuwaiti government to immediately release journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin. An award-winning journalist and television host who worked for Al Jazeera for many years,…
Hot Off the Press: EFF's Updated Guide to Tech at the US-Mexico Border
When people see Customs & Border Protection's giant, tethered surveillance blimp flying 20 miles outside of Marfa, Texas, lots of them confuse it with an art installation.…
EFF to State AGs: Investigate Google's Broken Promise to Users Targeted by the Government
Google's Failure to Warn Users About Law Enforcement Demands for Data Is Deceptive SAN FRANCISCO – The Electronic Frontier Foundation sent complaints today to the attorneys…
The Dangers of California’s Legislation to Censor 3D Printing
California’s bill, A.B. 2047 , will not only mandate censorware — software which exists to bluntly block your speech as a user — on all 3D printers; it will also criminalize the…
Speaking Freely: Dr. Jean Linis-Dinco
Dr. Jean Linis-Dinco is an activist-researcher working at the intersection of human rights and technology. Born in the Philippines and shaped by firsthand experience with…
We Need You: Our Privacy Cannot Afford a Clean Extension of Section 702
We go through this every couple of years: Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which of Americans’ communications with foreign persons overseas is up…
Digital Hopes, Real Power: The Rise of Network Shutdowns
This is the fourth installment of a blog series reflecting on the global digital legacy of the 2011 Arab uprisings. You can read the rest of the series here . Iran’s internet has…
Yikes, Encryption’s Y2K Moment is Coming Years Early
Google moved up its estimated deadline for quantum preparedness in cryptography to 2029—only 33 months from now. That’s earlier than previous deadlines , and they proposed the new…
Banning New Foreign Routers Mistargets Products to Fix Real Problem
On March 23, the FCC issued an update to their Covered List, a list of equipment banned from obtaining regulatory approval necessary for U.S. sale (and thus effectively a ban on…
FCC Chair Carr’s Threats to Punish Broadcasters Are Unconstitutional
EFF joined other digital rights and civil liberties organizations in calling out the unconstitutionality of Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr’s recent threats…
The Government Must Not Force Companies to Participate in AI-powered Surveillance
Update: On March 24, 2026, the Northern District of California granted Anthropic's Motion for Preliminary Injunction, finding that the government's actions were not designed to…
👁 Selling Mass Surveillance | EFFector 38.7
Time and time again, we've seen police surveillance suffer from 'mission creep'—technology sold as a way to prevent heinous crimes ends up enforcing traffic violations, tracking…
EU Parliament Blocks Mass-Scanning of Our Chats—What's Next?
The EU’s so-called Chat Control plan , which would mandate mass scanning and other encryption breaking measures, has had some good news lately . The most controversial idea, the…
A.B. 1043’s Internet Age Gates Hurt Everyone
EFF has long warned against age-gating the internet . Such mandates strike at the foundation of the free and open internet. They create unnecessary and unconstitutional barriers…
EFFecting Change: Privacy's Defender
Join EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn in conversation with 404 Media Cofounder Jason Koebler to discuss Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance,…
The Anthropic-DOD Conflict: Privacy Protections Shouldn’t Depend On the Decisions of a Few Powerful People
The U.S. military has officially ended its $200 million contract with AI company Anthropic and has ordered all other military contractors to cease use of their products. Why?…
Cindy Cohn on The Daily Show: Learn More About EFF, Privacy's Defender, and Watch the Interview
About EFF The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading nonprofit defending civil liberties in the digital world. EFF’s work to protect your rights on the internet is…
The FAA’s “Temporary” Flight Restriction for Drones is a Blatant Attempt to Criminalize Filming ICE
Legal intern Raj Gambhir was the principal author of this post. The Trump administration has restricted the First Amendment right to record law enforcement by issuing an…
Another Court Rules Copyright Can’t Stop People From Reading and Speaking the Law
Another court has ruled that copyright can’t be used to keep our laws behind a paywall. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld a lower court’s ruling that it is…
Digital Hopes, Real Power: How the Arab Spring Fueled a Global Surveillance Boom
This is the third installment of a blog series reflecting on the global digital legacy of the 2011 Arab uprisings. You can read the first post here , and the second here . When…
Triple Header for Privacy’s Defender in New York
You’re invited on a journey inside the privacy battles that shaped the internet. EFF’s Executive Director Cindy Cohn has tangled with the feds, fought for your data security, and…
Double Shot of Privacy's Defender in D.C.
You’re invited on a journey inside the privacy battles that shaped the internet. EFF’s Executive Director Cindy Cohn has tangled with the feds, fought for your data security, and…
Government Spying 🤝 Targeted Advertising | EFFector 38.5
Have you ever seen a really creepy targeted ad online? One that revealed just how much these companies know about your life? It's unsettling enough to see how much companies know…
Congress Is Dropping the Ball with a Clean Extension of FISA
Two years ago, Congress passed the “Reforming Intelligence and Securing America” Act (RISAA) that included nominal reforms to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance…
UK Politicians Continue to Miss the Point in Latest Social Media Ban Proposal
The UK is moving forward with its efforts to ban social media for young people. Ahead of this week’s House of Lords debate on the topic, we’re getting you situated with a primer…
US Tech Companies Must be Accountable in US Courts for Facilitating Persecution and Torture Abroad, EFF Urges US Supreme Court
Cisco Systems Case Has Major Implications for Global Human Rights SAN FRANCISCO – U.S. technology companies should be legally accountable in U.S. courts for building tools that…
EFF’s Submission to the UN OHCHR on Protection of Human Rights Defenders in the Digital Age
Governments around the world are adopting new laws and policies aimed at addressing online harms, including laws intended to curb cybercrime and disinformation, and ostensibly…
EFF Sues for Answers About Medicare's AI Experiment
Little Is Known About AI That Could Affect Millions of Seniors' Care SAN FRANCISCO – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)…
EFF to Third Circuit: Electronic Device Searches at the Border Require a Warrant
EFF, along with the national ACLU and the ACLU affiliates in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit…
Weasel Words: OpenAI’s Pentagon Deal Won’t Stop AI‑Powered Surveillance
OpenAI, the maker of ChaptGPT, is rightfully facing widespread criticism for its decisions to fill the gap the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) created when rival Anthropic…
Supreme Court Agrees With EFF: ISPs Don't Have To Be Copyright Enforcers
If your ISP can be liable for huge amounts of money for not terminating your access to the internet because of accusations that you—or someone in your household or college…
Nicole Ozer Named as Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Executive Director
Ozer, With Decades of Experience in Technology and Civil Liberties Law, Will Succeed Cindy Cohn as Organization’s Leader SAN FRANCISCO – Nicole Ozer has been appointed as…
EFF Launches New Fight to Free the Law
EFF has filed a new lawsuit against the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to ensure that the public has full access to the laws that govern us. Our client…
EFF is Leaving X
After almost twenty years on the platform, EFF is logging off of X. This isn’t a decision we made lightly, but it might be overdue. The math hasn’t worked out for a while now. The…
Comparison Shopping Is Not a (Computer) Crime
As long as people have had more than one purchasing option, they’ve been comparing those options and looking for bargains. Online shoppers are no exception; in fact, one of the…
Think Twice Before Buying or Using Meta’s Ray-Bans
Over the last decade or so, the tech industry has tried, and mostly failed, to make “smart glasses”—tech-infused glasses with cameras, AI, maps, displays, and more—a thing. But in…
Digital Hopes, Real Power: Reflecting on the Legacy of the Arab Spring
This is the first installment of a blog series reflecting on the global digital legacy of the 2011 Arab uprisings. A new generation of protesters, raised on social media and often…
Google and Amazon: Acknowledged Risks, and Ignored Responsibilities
In late 2024, we urged Google and Amazon to honor their human rights commitments, to be more transparent with the public, and to take meaningful action to address the risks posed…
The Foilies 2026
Recognizing the Worst in Government Transparency The Foilies were written by EFF's Beryl Lipton, Dave Maass and Aaron Mackey and MuckRock's Dillon Bergin, Kelly Kauffman and Anna…
👓 Who's Really Watching What Smartglasses See? | EFFector 38.6
After years of tech industry experiments, smartglasses with embedded cameras and microphones have finally gone mainstream. And, disturbingly, sometimes it's not just their owners…
Weakening Speech Protections Will Punish All of Us—Not Just Meta
Recently, a California Superior Court jury found that Meta and YouTube harmed a user through some of the features they offered. And a New Mexico jury concluded that Meta deceived…
A Baseless Copyright Claim Against a Web Host—and Why It Failed
Copyright law is supposed to encourage creativity. Too often, it’s used to extract payouts from others. Higbee & Associates, a law firm known for sending copyright demand letters…
Digital Hopes, Real Power: From Revolution to Regulation
This is the second installment of a blog series reflecting on the global digital legacy of the 2011 Arab uprisings. You can read the first post here . From Russia —where wartime…
Tech Nonprofits to Feds: Don’t Weaponize Procurement to Undermine AI Trust and Safety
While the very public fight continues between the Department of Defense and Anthropic over whether the government can punish a company for refusing to allow its technology to be…
Speaking Freely: Jacob Mchangama
Interviewer: Jillian York Jacob Mchangama is a Danish lawyer, human-rights advocate, and public commentator. He is the founder and director of Justitia, a Copenhagen-based think…
Print Blocking Won't Work - Permission to Print Part 2
This is the second post in a series on 3D print blocking, for the first entry check out: Print Blocking is Anti-Consumer - Permission to Print Part 1 Legislators across the U.S.…
Blocking the Internet Archive Won’t Stop AI, But It Will Erase the Web’s Historical Record
Imagine a newspaper publisher announcing it will no longer allow libraries to keep copies of its paper. That’s effectively what’s begun happening online in the last few months.…
Admiring Our Heroes for International Women’s Day: Five Women In Tech That EFF Admires
In honor of International Women’s Day, we asked five women at EFF about women in digital rights, freedom of expression, technology, and tech activism who have inspired us. Anna…
EFF's Cindy Cohn on The Daily Show! Tonight Monday, March 30
EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn will be on The Daily Show tonight, Monday March 30, at 11 pm ET and PT, speaking with host Jon Stewart. Cindy will discuss her long history of…
Speaking Freely: Shin Yang
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity. David Greene: Shin, please introduce yourself to the Speaking Freely community. Shin Yang : My name is Shin Yang. I am a…
Copyright Bullying vs. Religious Freedom
The government should not help a religious institution to punish or deter members from inquiring about their faith. Yet, once again , the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society is…
Print Blocking is Anti-Consumer - Permission to Print Part 1
This is the first post in a series on 3D print blocking, for the next entry check out Print Blocking Won't Work - Permission to Print Part 2 When legislators give companies an…
Rep. Finke Was Right: Age-Gating Isn’t About Kids, It’s About Control
When Rep. Leigh Finke spoke last month before the Minnesota House Commerce Finance and Policy Committee to testify against HF1434 , a broad-sweeping proposal to age-gate the…
Certbot and Let's Encrypt Now Support IP Address Certificates
(Note: This post is also cross-posted on the Let's Encrypt blog ) As announced earlier this year, Let's Encrypt now issues IP address and six-day certificates to the general…
Traffic Violation! License Plate Reader Mission Creep Is Already Here
A new report from 404 Media sheds light on how automated license plate readers (ALPRs) could be used beyond the press releases and glossy marketing materials put out by law…
The SAFE Act is an Imperfect Vehicle for Real Section 702 Reform
The SAFE act, introduced by Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Dick Durbin (D-IL), is the first of many likely proposals we will see to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign…
Privacy's Defender: Launch Party in Berkeley
We're celebrating the launch of Privacy's Defender, a new book by EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn on Thursday, March 12—and we want you to join us! Cindy has tangled with the…
Bonus Podcast Episode: Privacy’s Defender - Cindy Cohn with Cory Doctorow
While How to Fix the Internet is on hiatus, we wanted to share a great conversation with you from last week. EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn spoke with bestselling novelist,…
The Government Uses Targeted Advertising to Track Your Location. Here's What We Need to Do.
We've all had the unsettling experience of seeing an ad online that reveals just how much advertisers know about our lives. You're right to be disturbed. Those very same online ad…
Admiring Our Heroes for International Women’s Day: Celebrating Women Who Have Received EFF Awards
For the last hundred years, women have had pivotal and far too often unsung roles in building and shaping the technology that we now use every day. Many have heard of Ada…
War as a Pretext: Gulf States Are Tightening the Screws on Speech—Again
War does not only reshape borders. It also reshapes what can be seen, said, and remembered. When governments invoke “misinformation” during wartime, they often mean something…