EFF Backs California Bill to Protect People Seeking Abortion and Gender-Affirming Care from Dragnet Digital Surveillance
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/02/eff-backs-california-bill-protect-people-seeking-abortion-and-gender-affirming
February 13, 2023, 11:59 PM
EFF proudly joins ACLU California Action and If/When/How to co-sponsor new California legislation to protect people seeking abortion and gender-affirming care from dragnet-style digital surveillance. A coalition of more than 25 reproductive justice, civil liberties, and privacy groups are supporting the bill at introduction. 
Support A.B. 793
Stop All Digital Dragnet Surveillance of Vulnerable People
Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland) on Monday introduced AB 793, a bill to prevent unconstitu...
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Why is New York City Removing Free Broadband In Favor of Charter?
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/02/wtf-new-york-city-remove-free-broadband-favor-charter
February 13, 2023, 10:45 PM
In January 2020, former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced New York City’s Internet Master Plan, setting a path to deliver broadband for low-income New Yorkers by investing in public fiber infrastructure. The plan was a clear response to the gap created from systemic digital redlining (an industry practice EFF has called for governments to ban) that every American city deals with today. Shortly after the announcement by de Blasio, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the made the need for p...
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Digital Rights Updates with EFFector 35.2
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/02/digital-rights-updates-effector-352
February 10, 2023, 11:20 PM
Have no fear, EFF is here to keep you updated on your digital rights! Version 35, issue 2 of our EFFector newsletter is out now. Catch up on the latest EFF news by reading our newsletter or listening to the audio version below. This issue covers the new season of our podcast, How to Fix the Internet, as well as our support for FCC  nominee Gigi Sohn, and much more.
LISTEN ON YouTube
EFFECTOR 35.2 - How to Fix the Internet Returns With A New Season
Make sure you never miss an issue by signing up...
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Uncle Sow: Dark Caracal in Latin America
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/02/uncle-sow-dark-caracal-latin-america
February 10, 2023, 2:58 PM
In 2018, EFF along with researchers from Lookout Security published a report describing the Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) we dubbed "Dark Caracal." Now we have uncovered a new Dark Caracal campaign operating since March of 2022, with hundreds of infections across more than a dozen countries. In this report we will present evidence that the cyber mercenary group Dark Caracal is still active and continues to be focused on Latin America, as was reported last year. We have discovered that Dark Ca...
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Stalkerware Maker Fined $410k and Compelled to Notify Victims
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/02/stalkerware-maker-fined-410k-and-compelled-notify-victims
February 8, 2023, 7:54 PM
Last week, the New York Attorney General secured a $410,000 fine from Patrick Hinchy and 16 companies that he runs which produce and sell spyware and stalkerware. In addition, he and his companies must modify their stalkerware to alert victims that their devices have been compromised. This sends a clear message to app developers who make their money by surreptitiously installing software to spy on the devices of others: the State of New York will not tolerate your actions.
EFF has long champione...
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Participation in the Fediverse
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/02/participation-fediverse
February 7, 2023, 6:54 PM
Parts of the fediverse have been in something of an uproar recently over an experimental search service that was under development called (appropriately enough) Searchtodon. The project aimed to enable people to search their own home timeline and worked by being authorized by a user to access that user’s timeline via the ActivityPub API and downloading a copy of each post that is visible to that user. The service then indexed the posts and gave the user tools to search through the history of t...
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Podcast Episode: When Tech Comes to Town
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/02/podcast-episode-when-tech-comes-town
February 7, 2023, 1:27 PM
When a tech company moves to your city, the effects ripple far beyond just the people it employs. It can impact thousands of ancillary jobs – from teachers to nurses to construction workers – as well as the community’s housing, transportation, health care, and other businesses. And too often, these impacts can be negative. 


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Courts Must Not Allow Litigants to Plead Around The First Amendment’s Speech Protections
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/02/courts-must-not-allow-litigants-plead-around-first-amendments-speech-protections
February 3, 2023, 11:07 PM
Meritless defamation lawsuits can deter legal speech by forcing people to spend time and money fighting them. That is why courts must diligently protect people’s First Amendment rights by quickly dismissing claims that target people’s protected opinions.
That did not happen in a case on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Amin v. Winslow, and EFF filed a friend-of-the-court brief last month describing the potential danger to speech when courts let these cases linger.
...
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EFF, ACLU Seek to Protect the Public’s Right to Access Judicial Records
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/aclu-eff-seek-protect-publics-right-access-judicial-records
February 2, 2023, 11:57 PM
Amicus Brief Urges the Court to Increase Transparency of SCA Warrant Requests ST. LOUIS — The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of an appeal filed by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP). The brief argues that RCFP has standing to sue to access search warrants and other materials related to the Stored Communications Act (SCA) sealed by a federal district court. The federal dis...
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The Breadth of the Fediverse
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/02/breadth-fediverse
February 2, 2023, 8:09 PM
The Washington Post recently published an op-ed by Megan McArdle titled "Twitter might be replaced, but not by Mastodon or other imitators." The article argues that Mastodon is falling into a common trap for open source projects: building a look-alike alternative which improves things a typical user doesn’t care about, while missing elements that made the original successful.  Instead, she suggests that deposing Twitter will require something that is wholly new, and offer the masses something...
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Civil Society Organizations Call on the House Of Lords to Protect Private Messaging in the Online Safety Bill
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/02/civil-society-organizations-call-house-lords-protect-private-messaging-online
February 1, 2023, 5:48 PM
As the UK's Online Safety Bill enters its Second Reading in the House of Lords, EFF, Liberty, Article 19, and Big Brother Watch are calling on Peers to protect end-to-end encryption and the right to private messaging online.
As we've said before, undermining protections for end-to-end encryption would make UK businesses and individuals less safe online, including the very groups that the Online Safety Bill intends to protect. Criminals, rogue employees, domestic abusers, and authoritarian g...
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Setting the Record Straight: EFF Statement in Support of FCC Nominee Gigi Sohn
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/setting-record-straight-eff-statement-support-fcc-nominee-gigi-sohn
January 31, 2023, 8:15 PM
In the last week, a number of dangerous and conspiracy-driven attacks were launched against EFF board member Gigi Sohn, an eminently qualified nominee to the Federal Communications Commission. These attacks attempted to twist EFF's long-held positions and commitments into dog whistles against Ms. Sohn. We’d like to set the record straight.
First, we’ve seen some outlandish headlines about EFF’s 2020 recognition of Danielle Blunt, a leader in the technology policy space and advocate for sex...
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EFF Files Amicus Briefs in Two Important Geofence Search Warrant Cases
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/eff-files-amicus-briefs-two-important-geofence-search-warrant-cases
January 31, 2023, 8:02 PM
Should the police be able to identify everyone who was in a busy metropolitan area, just because a crime occurred there? In two amicus briefs just filed in appellate courts, we argue that’s a clearly unconstitutional search.[1]
The two cases are People v. Meza, in the California Court of Appeal, and United States v. Chatrie, in the federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. In each case, the defendant is challenging the police use of a surveillance tool we’ve written about before called a “g...
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The FCC Broadband Maps: Meet the New Maps, Same as the Old Maps
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/fcc-broadband-map-has-problems
January 31, 2023, 6:53 PM
When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released their new broadband map in November 2022, many hoped the chronic inaccuracies of past FCC maps would be resolved. Previous maps of high-speed broadband access in the United States painted inaccurate pictures partly because the definitions of things like “access” and “high-speed” were, frankly, wrong. Furthermore, the maps were based on data self-reported by internet service providers, which have every interest in claiming better s...
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Two Steps Forward, One Step Back on Vaccine Privacy in New York
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/two-steps-forward-one-step-back-vaccine-privacy-new-york
January 31, 2023, 5:34 PM
EFF was proud to support New York’s A. 7326/S. 6541, which the legislature passed to protect the confidentiality of medical immunity information. It limits what data can be collected or shared, who it can be shared with, and how long it can be stored. (In New York, bills must have identical versions in each chamber.) It’s important to put privacy protections in place now to ensure personal medical information is kept safe, and that that information won’t be used to harm the most vulnerabl...
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Stupid Patent of the Month: Digital Verification Systems Patents E-Signatures 
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/stupid-patent-month-digital-verification-systems-patents-e-signatures
January 30, 2023, 8:00 PM
Patent trolls make patents, and argue over them. They don’t have to ever make the thing described in their patents, if it’s even possible to determine what those things are. Instead, they generate legal threats and waste the time and money of companies that do do these things. 
This month’s Stupid Patent of the Month is a great example of that. U.S. Patent No. 9,054,860 has been used by a company called Digital Verification Services, LLC, (DVS) to sue more than 50 companies that provide d...
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California Law Says Electronic Search Data Must Be Posted Online. So Where Is It?
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/california-law-says-electronic-search-data-must-be-posted-online-so-where-it
January 30, 2023, 6:25 PM
Update, Feb. 8, 2023: The California Department of Justice has provided EFF with updated search warrant data for 2020, 2021, and 2022, with personal information redacted. We have uploaded the data accordingly. An agency spokesperson said via email, "We are currently reviewing our procedures and we will follow up once the datasets are live on OpenJustice. We do not have an exact timeline, but our team is working on getting it back online as quickly as possible."
Update, Feb. 1, 2023: Out of an ab...
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Brazil's Telecom Operators Made Strides and Had Shortcomings in Internet Lab's New Report on User Privacy Practices
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/brazils-telecom-operators-made-strides-and-had-shortcomings-internet-labs-new
January 27, 2023, 1:23 PM
Brazil’s biggest internet connection providers made moderate advances in protecting customer data and being transparent about their privacy practices, but fell short on meeting certain requirements for upholding users’ rights under Brazil's  data protection law, according to InternetLab’s 2022 Quem Defende Seus Dados? (Who Defends Your Data?) report.
In this seventh annual assessment of Brazil’s providers, InternetLab evaluated six companies, and looked at both their broadband and mobi...
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EFF Tells Supreme Court: User Speech Must Be Protected
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/eff-tells-supreme-court-user-speech-must-be-protected
January 25, 2023, 10:37 PM
The Supreme Court is about to hear a case that could dramatically affect users’ speech rights online. EFF has filed a brief explaining what’s at stake, and urging the court to preserve the key law protecting user expression, 47 U.S.C § 230 (Section 230).
In Gonzalez v. Google, the petitioning plaintiffs make a radical argument about Section 230. They have asked the Supreme Court to rule that Section 230 doesn’t protect recommendations we get online, or how certain content gets arranged an...
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The Next Stage in Security Expert’s Trial Set for January 31
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/next-stage-security-experts-trial-set-january-31
January 24, 2023, 7:45 PM
Swedish computer security expert Ola Bini was arrested in April, 2019, in Ecuador, and a cloud has hung over his case ever since. Bini's case has been impacted  by numerous due process violations and human rights concerns, and there have been suspensions or delays at nearly every stage of his trial. EFF conducted a fact-finding mission into the case in 2019 and found that the allegations against Bini–who is known globally as a computer security expert, and a contributor to free software proje...
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Podcast Episode: Don't Be Afraid to Poke the Tigers
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/podcast-episode-dont-be-afraid-poke-tigers
January 24, 2023, 1:15 PM
What can a bustling electronic components bazaar in Shenzhen, China, tell us about building a better technology future? To researcher and hacker Andrew “bunnie” Huang, it symbolizes the boundless motivation, excitement, and innovation that can be unlocked if people have the rights to repair, tinker, and create. 
Huang believes that to truly unleash innovation that betters everyone, we must replace our current patent and copyright culture with one that truly values making products better, ch...
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For Would-Be Censors and the Thin-Skinned, Copyright Law Offers Powerful Tools
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/would-be-censors-and-thin-skinned-copyright-law-offers-powerful-tools
January 20, 2023, 8:37 PM
We're taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, and addressing what's at stake, and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation.
Yesterday, we wrote about the importance of fair use as a safeguard for free expression. But all too often, fair use and other legal limits on copyr...
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Right to Repair Advocates Have Had Good Victories. We Have To Keep Fighting.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/right-repair-advocates-have-had-good-victories-we-have-keep-fighting
January 20, 2023, 4:56 PM
It’s been a good year for right to repair advocates. Colorado passed an important law to allow wheelchair users access to resources they need to fix their own chairs. The Federal Trade Commission has stepped up enforcement of companies that limit the right to repair. And New York made history by passing the first broad consumer right to repair legislation at the end of 2022, requiring some digital electronics manufacturers to provide access to parts, tools, and information necessary for repair...
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Fair Use Creep Is A Feature, Not a Bug
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/fair-use-creep-feature-not-bug
January 19, 2023, 8:09 PM
We're taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, and addressing what's at stake, and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation.
Lawyers, scholars, and activists, including EFF, often highlight Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and Section 230 (originally of ...
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Have You Tried Turning It Off and On Again: Rethinking Tech Regulation and Creative Labor
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/have-you-tried-turning-it-and-again-rethinking-tech-regulation-and-creative-labor
January 19, 2023, 7:16 PM
We're taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, and addressing what's at stake, and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation.
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was whic...
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Open Data and the AI Black Box
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/open-data-and-ai-black-box
January 19, 2023, 12:32 AM
We're taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, and addressing what's at stake and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) grabs headlines with new tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E 2, but it is already here and having major impacts on our lives. ...
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Digital Rights Updates with EFFector 35.1
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/digital-rights-updates-effector-351
January 17, 2023, 9:48 PM
It's a new year! There's no better time to keep up with the latest updates on your digital rights. Version 35, issue 1 of our EFFector newsletter is out now. Catch up on the latest EFF news by reading our newsletter or listening to the audio version below. This issue covers a collection of EFF's 2022 Year in Review posts (seriously, there are a lot of them!) as well as some upcoming events EFF will be attending and even new job postings.
LISTEN ON YouTube
EFFECTOR 35.1 - Digital Rights In Review...
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US Copyright Term Extensions Have Stopped, But the Public Domain Still Faces Threats
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/us-copyright-term-extensions-have-stopped-public-domain-still-faces-threats
January 16, 2023, 10:50 PM
We're taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, and addressing what's at stake, and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation.
Every January 1st, we celebrate the creative works that become free to use and adapt as their copyright expires. This year, that includes the iconic...
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It’s Copyright Week 2023: Join Us in the Fight for Better Copyright Law and Policy
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/its-copyright-week-2023-join-us-fight-better-copyright-law-and-policy
January 16, 2023, 5:50 PM
We're taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, and addressing what's at stake, and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation.
One of the interesting side effects of the internet is that more people than ever are aware of copyright. Pretty much everyone online has seen some ...
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Kurt Opsahl Moves to EFF Special Counsel
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/kurt-opsahl-moves-eff-special-counsel
January 12, 2023, 6:13 PM
Longtime EFFer and Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel Kurt Opsahl will be moving on from the Electronic Frontier Foundation after nearly 20 years, on February 1. But we aren’t going to let him go too far: Kurt will continue on as a Special Counsel of EFF.  Kurt will be joining the Filecoin Foundation as Associate General Counsel for Cybersecurity and Civil Liberties Policy.
Kurt joined EFF in 2004, and has been a key part of nearly every big fight for digital rights since then. Ove...
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Beware the Gifts of Dragons: How D&D’s Open Gaming License May Have Become a Trap for Creators
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/beware-gifts-dragons-how-dds-open-gaming-license-may-have-become-trap-creators
January 11, 2023, 12:32 AM
UPDATE: It's been reported as of January 14, 2023 that Wizards of the Coast has backed off on their plans for now. 
According to leaks reported last week, the company that owns Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is planning to revoke the open license that has, since the year 2000, applied to a wide range of unofficial, commercial products that build on the mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons. The report indicates that this wouldn’t simply be a change going forward, but would affect existing works ...
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EFF and Partners Call Out Threats to Free Expression in Draft Text as UN Cybersecurity Treaty Negotiations Resume
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/eff-and-partners-call-out-threats-free-expression-draft-text-un-cybersecurity
January 9, 2023, 5:49 PM
EFF is attending this week and next a new round of negotiations over the proposed UN Cybercrime Treaty to raise concerns that draft provisions now on the table include a long list of content-related crimes that pose serious threats to free expression, privacy, and the legitimate activities of journalists, whistleblowers, activists, and others. In talks starting today and running through January 20 in Vienna, we will fight for users to ensure that detailed human rights are embedded in the treaty,...
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Last Chance for U.S. Federal Employees to Make a Pledge for EFF!
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/last-chance-us-federal-employees-make-pledge-eff
January 5, 2023, 11:24 PM
Calling all U.S. federal employees and retirees: the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) pledge period is closing on January 14, 2023. Be sure to make a pledge for EFF now to support digital freedoms for every internet user. 
It's easy to donate to EFF through the CFC! Here are the steps:
Scan the QR code below or go to https://GiveCFC.org
Click the DONATE button to give via payroll deduction, credit/debit, or an e-check
Be sure to use our CFC ID #10437
If you are renewing a pledge from last year...
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Data Sanctuary for Abortion and Trans Health Care: 2022 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/data-sanctuary-abortion-and-trans-health-care-2022-year-review
January 2, 2023, 10:37 PM
In the wake of this year’s Supreme Court decision in Dobbs overruling Roe v. Wade, sheriffs and bounty hunters in anti-abortion states will try to investigate and punish abortion seekers based on their internet browsing, private messaging, and phone app location data. We can expect similar tactics from officials in states that have prohibited transgender youths from obtaining gender-affirming health care. Indeed, the Texas governor ordered state child welfare officials to investigate such care...
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A Year in Internet Surveillance and Resilience: 2022 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/2022-year-internet-surveillance-and-resilience
January 2, 2023, 5:49 PM
This year, we have seen an array of different ways governments around the world have tried to alter basic security on the web for users. Much of this was attempted through legislation, direct network interference, or as a request directly from a government to internet governance authorities. On the other hand, we have also seen new anti-censorship mechanisms assist people so that they can regain access to the wider world, providing hope in really dark times.
EU's Digital Identity Framework
While...
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Global Cybercrime and Government Access to User Data Across Borders: 2022 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/global-cybercrime-and-government-access-user-data-across-borders-2022-year-review
January 2, 2023, 5:42 PM
Since the new UN cybercrime treaty began to take shape in 2022, EFF has been fighting on behalf of users to make sure content-based crimes are excluded from the Treaty, and robust human rights safeguards and rule of law standards are the basis of any final product.
There’s a lot at stake—the proposed UN cybercrime treaty has the potential to rewrite criminal laws around the world, adding new offenses and creating new police powers for both domestic and international investigations, and impli...
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Fighting for the Digital Future of Books: 2022 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/fighting-digital-future-books-2022-review
January 1, 2023, 5:24 PM
Informed citizens need comprehensive libraries that meet people where they are.  Today, that means online spaces that welcome everyone to use their resources, invite them to create new and truthful works, and respect the interests of both authors and readers. 
EFF client Internet Archive has created one of those spaces. Through Controlled Digital Lending (“CDL”), the Internet Archive and other nonprofit libraries make and lend digital scans of print books in their collections, at no cost t...
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Seeing Patent Trolls Clearly: 2022 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/seeing-patent-trolls-clearly-2022-review
January 1, 2023, 5:16 PM
The internet can be a powerful tool for communicating, collaborating, and finding community. But lawsuits and threats from patent trolls have been an obstacle to the dream of a free and open internet. That’s why EFF has been fighting back against them for more than 15 years. 
Patent trolls are companies that are focused on suing and threatening over patents, not on offering actual goods or services. Very often, they use software patents to sue over basic business processes, like making pictur...
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Reproductive Justice and Digital Rights: 2022 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/reproductive-justice-and-digital-rights-year-review
December 31, 2022, 5:03 PM
Reproductive justice and safe access to abortion, like so many other aspects of managing our healthcare, is fundamentally tied to our digital lives. And since it is part of our healthcare, we should have the ability to keep it private and access information about it, even when it’s on a digital device. Actually, especially then: our devices contain a vast amount of highly sensitive personal information. And we all now turn to our phones in order to find information and share our experiences. E...
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Schools and EdTech Need to Study Up On Student Privacy: 2022 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/schools-and-edtech-need-study-student-privacy-year-review-2022
December 31, 2022, 5:01 PM
In 2022, student privacy gets a solid “C” grade. The trend of schools engaging in student surveillance did not let up in 2022. There were, however, some small wins indicative of  a growing movement to push back against this encroachment. Unfortunately, more schools than ever are spying on students through EdTech software and other means. 
In an important decision by a federal judge, a remote proctoring “room scan” by a public university - Cleveland State University in Ohio -  was deem...
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Ending the Scourge of Redlining in Broadband Access: 2022 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/ending-scourge-redlining-broadband-access-2022-year-review
December 30, 2022, 4:33 PM
EFF’s first ask for the incoming Biden Administration on broadband policy was to ban digital redlining by regulating broadband as a public good instead of a private luxury. EFF has extensively researched the state of fiber broadband infrastructure in the United States for years.  We’ve identified a disturbing trend in low-income access: the systemic underinvestment in their networks. Major broadband providers have been segregating internet users into first-class fiber internet and second-cl...
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The Year We Got Serious about Tech Monopolies: 2022 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/year-we-got-serious-about-tech-monopolies
December 29, 2022, 7:18 PM
2022 has been a big year for enforcement of the antitrust laws against tech companies, with the five largest (Apple, Google, Meta/Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft) all facing lawsuits or investigations in the US. Government scrutiny of tech company mergers is on the rise too: the Federal Trade Commission has challenged Meta’s acquisition of VR fitness company Within Unlimited and Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard. Congress has debated a series of potential new laws to address the ha...
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Surveillance in San Francisco: 2022 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/surveillance-san-francisco-2022-review
December 29, 2022, 5:49 PM
We love San Francisco. It’s EFF’s home.  It’s often an example for other cities in regards to technology use and civil liberties. We helped make San Francisco the first city in the United States to ban government use of facial recognition, and one of the first to require community control of whether police can use surveillance technology.
Unfortunately, San Francisco took a wrong turn in 2022. Over objections of many community groups, the Board of Supervisors passed temporary legislation...
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Pushing for Strong Digital Rights in the States: 2022 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/pushing-strong-digital-rights-states-2022-year-review
December 28, 2022, 9:21 PM
EFF worked on bills in more than a dozen states this year, fighting for strong digital rights at the state level. Across the country, legislators focused on issues including medical privacy, biometric privacy, and the right to repair.
 In California, EFF was proud to support three bills—A.B. 2091, A.B. 1242, and S.B. 107– that passed into law and take crucial first steps to make California a data sanctuary state for anyone seeking reproductive or gender-affirming care. Authored by Assemblym...
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An Urgent Year for Interoperability: 2022 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/urgent-year-interoperability-2022-review
December 28, 2022, 7:27 PM
 
Walled gardens can be great: we all like it when Stuff Just Works because a single company oversees all its elements. 
Walled gardens can be terrible: when all of our data, our social relations and our educational, romantic, professional and family ties are trapped inside a company’s silo and the company does something we don’t like, the garden walls become prison walls. 
Leaving Facebook or Twitter or Amazon or Google means leaving behind many important, valuable things, from media to ...
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Users Worldwide Said "Stop Scanning Us": 2022 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/year-users-worldwide-said-stop-scanning-us
December 27, 2022, 5:09 PM
The online conversations that bring us closer together can help build a world that’s more free, fair, and creative. But talking to each other only works when the people talking have their human rights respected, including their right to speak privately. The best tool to defend that right in the digital world is end-to-end encryption. 
In 2022, we fought back against large-scale attempts by governments to undermine secure and private online speech. The U.S. Senate introduced a new version of t...
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The State of Online Free Expression Worldwide: 2022 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/2022-year-review-state-online-free-expression-worldwide-2022
December 27, 2022, 5:05 PM
It’s been a tumultuous year for free expression globally. From internet shutdowns, crackdowns on expression and closed-door partnerships to attempts to restrict anonymity and end to end encryption, in many places, digital rights are under threat. And while the European Union has made regulatory strides, elsewhere in the world, efforts to regulate—particularly those undertaken by authoritarian countries—threaten to fracture the global internet. 
EFF is deeply engaged in the global fight fo...
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Police Drones and Robots: 2022 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/police-drones-and-robots-2022-review
December 27, 2022, 12:08 AM
The rising tide of policing by robots and drones may seem relentless or even inevitable. But activism, legislative advocacy, and public outrage can do a lot to protect our safety and freedom from these technologies.
This year began with a report that elucidated what police are doing with drones. Answer? Not much for now. A law in Minnesota mandates police departments report  all of the times they deployed drones and for what reason. We’ve suspected that police have few clear uses, other than...
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The Battle For Online Speech Moved To U.S. Courts: 2022 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/2022-battle-online-speech-moved-us-courts
December 27, 2022, 12:03 AM
EFF and our supporters have fought off numerous wrongheaded attempts by Congress to regulate online speech, including several that we wrote about last December.
The bevy of bad internet regulation proposals coming out of Congress hasn’t stopped. In 2022, the EARN IT Act was re-introduced. This wrongheaded bill would have allowed states to strip away critical legal protections for any websites, apps, or platforms, as long as state lawmakers linked their proposals to child abuse. If passed, the ...
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Privacy Shouldn't Clock Out When You Clock In: 2022 in Review
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/privacy-doesnt-stop-when-you-clock-2022-review
December 26, 2022, 9:25 PM
EFF continued to expand our work on technology issues in the workplace in 2022. We first renewed our attention to worker privacy when the specter of “bossware”—tracking software on work devices—reared its ugly head at the start of the pandemic.
Since then, EFF has joined with those in the labor community to learn more about surveillance in the workplace and on work devices, and the effect it has on employees. Particularly as regulators start to pay more attention, and legislators include...
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