Read the original article: Hearing Tuesday: EFF Urges California Lawmakers to Pass Fiber Broadband for All Bill To Ensure Full Internet Access For Everyone During the Pandemic and Beyond Over One Million Californians Lack Access to High-Speed Broadband Sacramento, California—On…
Category: Deeplinks
EFF to UN Expert on Racial Discrimination: Mass Border Surveillance Hurts Vulnerable Communities
Read the original article: EFF to UN Expert on Racial Discrimination: Mass Border Surveillance Hurts Vulnerable Communities EFF submitted a letter to the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance to testify…
International Proposals for Warrantless Location Surveillance To Fight COVID-19
Read the original article: International Proposals for Warrantless Location Surveillance To Fight COVID-19 Time and again, governments have used crises to expand their power, and often their intrusion into citizens’ lives. The COVID-19 pandemic has seen this pattern play out…
New Low for a Bad Patent: Patent Troll Sues Ventilator Company
Read the original article: New Low for a Bad Patent: Patent Troll Sues Ventilator Company Patent trolls don’t care much about innovation. Their lawsuits and threats are attempts at rent-seeking; they’re demanding money from people who make, use, or sell…
No to California Bill on Verified Credentials of COVID-19 Test Results
Read the original article: No to California Bill on Verified Credentials of COVID-19 Test Results EFF opposes a California bill, A.B. 2004, that would authorize the issuers of COVID-19 test results to do so with digital verifiable credentials. This bill…
COVID-19 Patients’ Right to Privacy Against Quarantine Surveillance
Read the original article: COVID-19 Patients’ Right to Privacy Against Quarantine Surveillance Governments around the world are using surveillance technologies to monitor whether COVID-19 patients are complying with instructions to quarantine at home. These include GPS ankle shackles, phone apps…
California Prisons Block AI Researchers from Examining Parole Denials
Read the original article: California Prisons Block AI Researchers from Examining Parole Denials EFF Clients Want Access to Public Records on Race and Ethnicity in Parole Hearings San Francisco – A team of researchers who want to develop a machine…
Victory! German Mass Surveillance Abroad is Ruled Unconstitutional
Read the original article: Victory! German Mass Surveillance Abroad is Ruled Unconstitutional In a landmark decision, the German Constitutional Court has ruled that mass surveillance of telecommunications outside of Germany conducted on foreign nationals is unconstitutional. Thanks to the chief…
Stopping the Google-Fitbit Merger: Your Stories Needed!
Read the original article: Stopping the Google-Fitbit Merger: Your Stories Needed! There’s a dirty secret in the incredible growth of Silicon Valley’s tech giants: it’s a cheat. Historically, US antitrust regulators would be deeply concerned about mergers with major competitors…
Balanced Copyright Rules Can Help Save Lives During the COVID 19 Crisis
Read the original article: Balanced Copyright Rules Can Help Save Lives During the COVID 19 Crisis Our friends and right to repair leaders at iFixit are can-do people. If they see a need they can fill, they step up to…
Security Expert Tadayoshi Khono Joins EFF Advisory Board
Read the original article: Security Expert Tadayoshi Khono Joins EFF Advisory Board EFF is proud to announce a new addition to our crack advisory board: security expert and scholar Tadayoshi Khono. A professor at University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen…
The House Passed Legislation to Keep People Online Despite COVID-19, And the Senate Should Follow
Read the original article: The House Passed Legislation to Keep People Online Despite COVID-19, And the Senate Should Follow The just-passed HEROES Act is a massive relief package designed to alleviate the harm of a massive crisis. In it is…
House Legislation Guarantees Internet Access for Those Affected by COVID-19
Read the original article: House Legislation Guarantees Internet Access for Those Affected by COVID-19 The House of Representatives has introduced new COVID-19 emergency response legislation to address the largest public health and economic calamity the United States has faced in…
Governments Shouldn’t Use “Centralized” Proximity Tracking Technology
Read the original article: Governments Shouldn’t Use “Centralized” Proximity Tracking Technology Companies and governments across the world are building and deploying a dizzying number of systems and apps to fight COVID-19. Many groups have converged on using Bluetooth-assisted proximity tracking…
The Santa Clara Principles During COVID-19: More Important Than Ever
Read the original article: The Santa Clara Principles During COVID-19: More Important Than Ever This blog post with co-authored with Spandana Singh of New America’s Open Technology Institute, a Santa Clara Principles partner. As COVID-19 has spread around the world…
The Patent Office Is “Adjusting” to a Supreme Court Ruling by Ignoring It
Read the original article: 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…
Unix and Adversarial Interoperability: The ‘One Weird Antitrust Trick’ That Defined Computing
Read the original article: Unix and Adversarial Interoperability: The ‘One Weird Antitrust Trick’ That Defined Computing The Unix operating system was created at Bell Labs in 1969. Today, it rules the world. Both Android and iOS are flavors of Unix.…
Cryptoparty Ann Arbor: A Case Study in Grassroots Activism
Read the original article: Cryptoparty Ann Arbor: A Case Study in Grassroots Activism Grassroots activism, in its many forms, allows a community to mobilize around a shared set of ideals and creates an environment whereby participants can share information and…
Second Paraguay Who Defends Your Data? Report: ISPs Still Have a Long Way Towards Public Commitments to Privacy and Transparency
Read the original article: Second Paraguay Who Defends Your Data? Report: ISPs Still Have a Long Way Towards Public Commitments to Privacy and Transparency Keeping track of ISPs’ commitments to their users, today Paraguay’s leading digital rights organization TEDIC is…
Using Drones to Fight COVID-19 is the Slipperiest of All Slopes
Read the original article: Using Drones to Fight COVID-19 is the Slipperiest of All Slopes As governments search in vain for a technological silver bullet that will contain COVID-19 and allow people to safely leave their homes, officials are increasingly…
Courts Issue Rulings in Two Cases Challenging Law Enforcement Searches of License Plate Databases
Read the original article: Courts Issue Rulings in Two Cases Challenging Law Enforcement Searches of License Plate Databases This week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in United States v. Yang, a case challenging the search of…
California’s Lawmakers Must Enact Privacy Rules to Advance COVID-19 Efforts
Read the original article: California’s Lawmakers Must Enact Privacy Rules to Advance COVID-19 Efforts EFF strongly backs calls, including from California Senate Judiciary Chair Hannah-Beth Jackson, for Governor Gavin Newsom to ensure that his response to this crisis respects Californians’…
COVID-19 and Online Freedom for #GivingTuesdayNow
Read the original article: COVID-19 and Online Freedom for #GivingTuesdayNow On May 5, EFF is joining forces with other nonprofit groups and individuals everywhere for a global day of support called #GivingTuesdayNow. It’s a direct response to the unprecedented community…
Catch Up On “At Home with EFF,” and Join Us For Giving Tuesday Now!
Read the original article: Catch Up On “At Home with EFF,” and Join Us For Giving Tuesday Now! Back by popular demand, we’re hosting a third At Home with EFF event tomorrow at 2 pm (PT)! In addition to our…
Recognizing World Press Freedom Day During COVID-19
Read the original article: Recognizing World Press Freedom Day During COVID-19 In the face of a global pandemic, there is an urgent need for reporting relating to the spread of the coronavirus and how governments are responding. But it is…
.ORG Domain Registry Sale to Ethos Capital Rejected in Stunning Victory for Public Interest Internet
Read the original article: .ORG Domain Registry Sale to Ethos Capital Rejected in Stunning Victory for Public Interest Internet ICANN Withholds Consent, Says Deal Lacked ‘Meaningful Plan to Protect’ .ORG Community San Francisco—In an important victory for thousands of public…
Victory! ICANN Rejects .ORG Sale to Private Equity Firm Ethos Capital
Read the original article: Victory! ICANN Rejects .ORG Sale to Private Equity Firm Ethos Capital In a stunning victory for nonprofits and NGOs around the world working in the public interest, ICANN today roundly rejected Ethos Capital’s plan to transform…
COVID-19 and Technology: Commonly Used Terms
Read the original article: COVID-19 and Technology: Commonly Used Terms New technical proposals to track, contain, and fight COVID-19 are coming out nearly every day, and the distinction between public health strategies, technical approaches, and other terms can be confusing.…
As Coronavirus Sweeps Through Jails and Prisons, Officials Crack Down on Inmate Speech
Read the original article: As Coronavirus Sweeps Through Jails and Prisons, Officials Crack Down on Inmate Speech Jails and prisons now account for many of the largest clusters of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States. Two prisons in Ohio…
Frontier’s Bankruptcy Reveals Why Big ISPs Choose to Deny Fiber to So Much of America
Read the original article: Frontier’s Bankruptcy Reveals Why Big ISPs Choose to Deny Fiber to So Much of America Even before it announced that it would seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Frontier had a well-deserved reputation for mismanagement and abusive conduct.…
The Dangers of COVID-19 Surveillance Proposals to the Future of Protest
Read the original article: The Dangers of COVID-19 Surveillance Proposals to the Future of Protest Many of the new surveillance powers now sought by the government to address the COVID-19 crisis would harm our First Amendment rights for years to…
Who’s A Patent Troll, and Who’s An Inventor?
Read the original article: Who’s A Patent Troll, and Who’s An Inventor? Two Congressmen recently introduced a bill that would create a special type of patent called an “Inventor-Owned Patent.” Having classified a group of “inventors,” the Inventor Rights Act…
The “Inventor Rights Act” is an Attack on True Invention
Read the original article: The “Inventor Rights Act” is an Attack on True Invention Certain patent owners just can’t get enough of the monopoly power patents bestow. That’s why they keep trying to make it easier to get and sue…
Teleconference About .ORG Sale: Thursday, April 30, 9 am ET/12 pm PT: EFF and Partners Discuss Future of .ORG as ICANN Decision Nears
Read the original article: Teleconference About .ORG Sale: Thursday, April 30, 9 am ET/12 pm PT: EFF and Partners Discuss Future of .ORG as ICANN Decision Nears Nonprofits Oppose Sale, Which Is Under Scrutiny by State Attorneys General San Francisco—The…
Apple and Google’s COVID-19 Exposure Notification API: Questions and Answers
Read the original article: Apple and Google’s COVID-19 Exposure Notification API: Questions and Answers Apple and Google are undertaking an unprecedented team effort to build a system for Androids and iPhones to interoperate in the name of technology-assisted COVID-19 contact…
Supreme Court Affirms That No One Owns the Law
Read the original article: Supreme Court Affirms That No One Owns the Law In a major victory for open government and fundamental due process, the Supreme Court ruled today that the annotations in a state’s official legal code—summaries of court…
Not a Hoax: The Very Real Threat of Political ‘Deepfakes’ Laws
Read the original article: Not a Hoax: The Very Real Threat of Political ‘Deepfakes’ Laws “The coronavirus, this is their new hoax.” That’s what Donald Trump says—or at least appears to say—in a new political ad airing in states across…
Hearing Tuesday: EFF, ACLU, and Cybersecurity Expert Ask Court to Unseal Ruling Denying DOJ Effort to Break Encryption
Read the original article: Hearing Tuesday: EFF, ACLU, and Cybersecurity Expert Ask Court to Unseal Ruling Denying DOJ Effort to Break Encryption Government Sought Facebook Messenger Voice Calls Seattle, Washington—On Tuesday, April 28, at 9 am, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF),…
Judge Dismisses Twitter’s Lawsuit Over Its Rights to Publish Information About Government Surveillance Orders
Read the original article: Judge Dismisses Twitter’s Lawsuit Over Its Rights to Publish Information About Government Surveillance Orders A federal judge dismissed Twitter’s long-pending lawsuit last week over its right to share information about secret government surveillance orders for its…
EFF Testifies Today on Law Enforcement Use of Face Recognition Before Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice
Read the original article: EFF Testifies Today on Law Enforcement Use of Face Recognition Before Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice The Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice invited EFF to testify on…
Copyright and Crisis: Filters Are Not the Answer
Read the original article: Copyright and Crisis: Filters Are Not the Answer It’s been a joke for years now, from the days when Facebook was just a website where you said you were eating a sandwich and Instagram was just…
Winding Down the STARTTLS Everywhere Project, and the Future of Secure Email
Read the original article: Winding Down the STARTTLS Everywhere Project, and the Future of Secure Email This is an overview of the STARTTLS Everywhere project. If your mailserver is affected by these changes, check out our technical deep-dive to securing…
Technical Deep-Dive: Winding Down the STARTTLS Policy List
Read the original article: Technical Deep-Dive: Winding Down the STARTTLS Policy List This is a technical guide for administrators affected by the STARTTLS Everywhere project. Check out our overview post of the project! The STARTTLS policy list started off as…
ICYMI: Watch “At Home With EFF,” A Virtual Discussion of COVID-19 and Digital Rights
Read the original article: ICYMI: Watch “At Home With EFF,” A Virtual Discussion of COVID-19 and Digital Rights We’re excited to announce our next virtual At Home With EFF event this Wednesday at noon (PT), with special guests Jeff Deutch of Syrian…
Yes, Section 215 Expired. Now What?
Read the original article: Yes, Section 215 Expired. Now What? On March 15, 2020, Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act—a surveillance law with a rich history of government overreach and abuse—expired. Along with two other PATRIOT Act provisions, Section 215…
EFF, Other Nonprofits, and California’s Attorney General Tell ICANN To Stop The Private Equity Takeover of .ORG
Read the original article: EFF, Other Nonprofits, and California’s Attorney General Tell ICANN To Stop The Private Equity Takeover of .ORG ICANN, the organization at the top of the Internet’s domain name system, may be close to deciding whether the…
Telling Police Where People With COVID-19 Live Erodes Public Health
Read the original article: Telling Police Where People With COVID-19 Live Erodes Public Health In some areas of the United States, local governments are sharing the names and addresses of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 with police and…
Open Innovation in Medical Technology Will Save Lives
Read the original article: Open Innovation in Medical Technology Will Save Lives Experts from the world’s top engineering programs have come together to share knowledge about medical technology, hoping to make life-saving treatments more widely available. Importantly, they’re ensuring that…