271
EFF's reply to cease-&-desist letter – “Virtual Coachella” parody video
eff_ltr_to_rico_mgmt_re_krazam_llc.pdf
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272
EFF's response to social media companies' decisions to block Trump’s accounts
Like most people in the United States and around the world, EFF is shocked and disgusted by Wednesday’s violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. We support all those who are working to defend the Constitution and the rule of law, and we are grateful for the service of policymakers, staffers, and other...
273
United Airlines Stops Researcher Who Tweeted about Airplane Network Security
Our client, Chris Roberts, a founder of the security intelligence firm One World Labs, found himself detained by the FBI earlier this week after tweeting about airplane network security during a United Airlines flight. When Roberts landed in Syracuse, he was questioned by the FBI, which ultimately...
274
Help EFF test Privacy Badger, our new browser extension for privacy
EFF is launching a new extension for Firefox and Chrome called Privacy Badger. Privacy Badger automatically detects and blocks spying ads around the Web, and the invisible trackers that feed information to them. You can try it out today: Privacy Badger is EFF's answer to intrusive and objectionable...
275
EFF: Stop Congress from Reauthorizing the Warrantless Spying Bill
We could be celebrating the New Year by ripping out the fiber optic cables that are sending copies of all our emails to the National Security Agency. But instead, Congress is planning on ringing in 2013 by re-authorizing parts of the FISA Amendments Act, the controversial 2008 bill that allows...
276
There's No DRM in JPEG – Let's Keep It That Way
If you have ever tried scanning or photocopying a banknote, you may have found that your software—such as Adobe Photoshop, or the embedded software in the photocopier—refused to let you do so. That's because your software is secretly looking for security features such as EURion dots in the...
277
ETS Isn't TLS and You Shouldn't Use It
The good news: TLS 1.3 is available, and the protocol, which powers HTTPS and many other encrypted communications, is better and more secure than its predecessors (including SSL). The bad news: Thanks to a financial industry group called BITS, there’s a look-alike protocol brewing called ETS (or...
278
Important Allies Join the Fight Against NSA Internet Backbone Surveillance
Last week, the ACLU filed a welcome additional challenge to the NSA’s warrantless Internet backbone surveillance (aka “Upstream” surveillance) on behalf of Wikimedia and a number of other media and human rights organizations. We applaud all of those involved in bringing the case. It adds another...
279
Los Angeles Cops Argue All Cars in LA Are Under Investigation
Do you drive a car in the greater Los Angeles Metropolitan area? According to the L.A. Police Department and L.A. Sheriff’s Department, your car is part of a vast criminal investigation. The agencies took a novel approach in the briefs they filed in EFF and the ACLU of Southern California’s...
280
EFF Sues to Invalidate FOSTA, an Unconstitutional Internet Censorship Law
We are asking a court to declare the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 (“FOSTA”) unconstitutional and prevent it from being enforced. The law was written so poorly that it actually criminalizes a substantial amount of protected speech and, according to experts,...
281
Australian PM Calls for End-To-End Encryption Ban
"The laws of mathematics are very commendable but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia", said Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today. He has been rightly mocked for this nonsense claim, that foreshadows moves to require online messaging providers to provide law...
282
How to Delete Your 23andMe Data
This week, the genetic testing company 23andMe filed for bankruptcy, which means the genetic data the company collected on millions of users is now up for sale. If you don't want your data included in any potential sale, it’s a good time to ask the company to delete it.
283
FISA Court Rejects Catch-22 Secrecy Argument in FOIA Case
In the first publicly known victory by a non-government party before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the secret court today granted a motion filed by EFF related to an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The FISC gave its OK to the public disclosure of an earlier opinion...
284
Yes, All DRM
Everybody knows that the digital locks of DRM on the digital media you own is a big problem. If you’ve bought a digital book, album, or movie, you should be able to do what you want with it—whether that’s enjoying it wherever you want to, or making it more accessible by changing the font size or...
285
Sorry, Gas Companies – Parody Isn't Infringement (Even If It Creeps You Out)
Activism comes in many forms. You might hold a rally, write to Congress, or fly a blimp over the NSA. Or you might use a darkly hilarious parody to make your point, like our client Modest Proposals recently did. Modest Proposals is an activist collective that uses parody and culture jamming to...
286
Help Fight Patent Trolls – Support the SHIELD Act
This week brings promising news in the fight against patent trolls. We have written before about how a broken patent system has led to an explosion of lawsuits by patent trolls (companies that assert patents as a business model instead of creating products). In the hands of trolls, patents become a...
287
The Patent Office is “adjusting” to a Supreme Court ruling by ignoring it
In 2014, the Supreme Court decided the landmark Alice v. CLS Bank case. The Court held generic computers, performing generic computer functions, can’t make something eligible for patent protection. That shouldn’t be controversial, but it took Alice to make this important limitation on patent-...
288
Mexican Protest Site Censored by GoDaddy with the U.S. Embassy's Help
The Mexican website 1dmx.org (mirror here), was set up in the wake of a set of controversial December 1st 2012 protests against the inauguration of the new President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto. For a year, the site served as a source of information, news, discussion and commentary from the point...
289
We want Texans to know their rights
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 self-managing an abortion. ALPRs are promoted as tools for keeping communities safe by finding missing persons and locating...
290
EFF's 100-Day Plan
The Trump presidency starts Friday. Here is the Electronic Frontier Foundation's agenda. In a matter of days, the United States will enter a new era. On Friday, President Elect Donald J. Trump will swear the oath of office, pledging to uphold the Constitution. But as EFF has learned in the course...
291
The Government Uses Zero Days for “Offense”
Little by little, the government is opening up about its use of computer security vulnerabilities. Last month, the NSA disclosed that it has historically “released more than 91% of vulnerabilities discovered in products that have gone through our internal review process and that are made and used...
292
How Cops Are Using Flock's ALPR Network to Surveil Protesters and Activists
Through an analysis of 10 months of nationwide searches on Flock Safety's servers, we discovered that more than 50 federal, state, and local agencies ran hundreds of searches through Flock's national network of surveillance data in connection with protest activity. In some cases, law enforcement specifically targeted…
293
You Can't Destroy the Village to Save It: W3C vs. DRM, Round Two
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the nonprofit body that maintains the Web's core standards, made a terrible mistake in 2013: they decided to add DRM—the digital locks that train your computer to say "I can't let you do that, Dave"; rather than "Yes, boss"—to the Web's standards. At the time,...
294
EFF: forced disclosure of encryption password violates 5th Amendment
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged a federal court in Colorado today to block the government's attempt to force a woman to enter a password into an encrypted laptop, arguing in an amicus brief that it would violate her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination...
295
Troubling Arguments from the Government in Smith v. Obama
We’ve filed our reply brief in the appeal of Smith v. Obama, our case challenging the NSA’s mass telephone records collection on behalf of Idaho nurse Anna Smith. The case will be argued before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal on December 8, 2014 in Seattle, and the public is welcome to attend....
296
Google Deceptively Tracks Students’ Internet Browsing, EFF Says in FTC Complaint
San Francisco—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a complaint today with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Google for collecting and data mining school children’s personal information, including their Internet searches—a practice EFF uncovered while researching its “Spying on...
297
Senate Vote Tomorrow Could Give Helping Hand to Patent Trolls
Update 11/19/24: The Senate Judiciary Committee is still scheduled to vote on the PREVAIL Act on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. Please express your continued opposition through our action center, linked below. A patent on crowdfunding. A patent on tracking packages. A patent on photo contests. A patent...
298
Officials Don't Get to Choose Who Gets to Receive, Comment, and Reply to Tweets
We’ve taken a stand for the First Amendment rights of individuals to receive and comment on social media posts from governmental officials and agencies. We’ve received a lot of good questions about why we believe that public servants—mayors, sheriffs, senators, even President Donald Trump—can’t...
299
Electronic Frontier Foundation Uncovers Widespread FBI Intelligence Violations
EFF has uncovered widespread violations stemming from FBI intelligence investigations from 2001 - 2008. In a report released today, EFF documents alarming trends in the Bureau’s intelligence investigation practices, suggesting that FBI intelligence investigations have compromised the civil...
300
EFF, CloudFlare Asks Court Not to Force the Internet to Enforce Trademarks
This month, CloudFlare and EFF pushed back against major music labels’ latest strategy to force Internet infrastructure companies like CloudFlare to become trademark and copyright enforcers, by challenging a broad court order that the labels obtained in secret. Unfortunately, the court denied...