Putting digital rights in the spotlight in 2016
With a presidential election looming this fall, mass media and social media will be more focused on policy issues over the next several months than likely at any other point until 2020. We’ve put together a questionnaire for the candidates to invite them to explain their own policy platforms. We’ll let you know what they say, and in the meantime encourage others to ask these questions themselves at campaign events, fundraisers, town halls, or informal appearances.
As a tax-exempt non-profit organization, we are forbidden from endorsing or opposing any candidate for office, so to be clear: we think voters can and should make their own choices. But we also think it's important for voters to know where the candidates stand on a variety of issues implicating digital rights, from the TPP to mass surveillance. These might not the only issues that matter in choosing a candidate, but they are important to consider.
Here are a few questions that EFF is asking:
Surveillance
- What are your views regarding further restrictions on domestic surveillance to finish the job that Congress started with the USA Freedom Act?
- What are your views regarding the authority for domestic NSA surveillance under executive order 12333, which was announced in 1981 to authorize foreign intelligence collection but revealed in 2013 by a State Department whistleblower to have been frequently cited as a legal basis for secret domestic surveillance?
Privacy
- Where do you stand regarding efforts by intelligence agencies to undermine encryption tools, such as the FBI's demands of Apple?
- What are your views regarding efforts to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to reflect recent reforms already adopted in states including California?
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
- Do you support the proposed TPP agreement? Why or why not?
- The TPP text was finally posted online after more than five years of negotiations. What are your views regarding whether to make trade agreements more transparent and democratic?
Open access
- Through various departmental grant programs, our federal government funds billions of dollars’ worth of grants intended to benefit the public. Do you think that federally funded research, educational materials, and cultural works should be made freely available to the public? Why or why not?
- What are your views regarding federal mandates requiring open licensing for federally funded content?
Copyright
- Looking forward, one of the most crucial digital freedom issues is: who will control the hardware in your home, in your pocket, and in your own body. Will you work to protect consumers' right to circumvent access controls on products they own and otherwise defend our freedom to tinker, repair, re-use and modify our stuff?
- Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act forbids users from breaking DRM (digital rights management) on works subject to copyright, even if the purpose is a clearly lawful fair use. What are your views regarding reforms to address this issue?
Patent reform
- Would you endorse a comprehensive patent litigation reform bill to protect innovators from patent trolls?
- Would you endorse a venue reform bill, making it more difficult for parties in patent suits to shop for favorable forums?
Transparency
- What are your views regarding whistleblowers who risk their careers to expose secret information important to the public interest?
- Under your administration, will there be consequences for intelligence officials who mislead Congress in response to direct questions at oversight hearings, or for agencies that misuse technology to cover up crimes, like when the CIA hacked into Congressional files to steal evidence of international human rights abuses?
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Deeplinks Topics
- Fair Use and Intellectual Property: Defending the Balance
- Free Speech
- Innovation
- International
- Know Your Rights
- Privacy
- Trade Agreements and Digital Rights
- Security
- State-Sponsored Malware
- Abortion Reporting
- Analog Hole
- Anonymity
- Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
- Biometrics
- Bloggers' Rights
- Broadcast Flag
- Broadcasting Treaty
- CALEA
- Cell Tracking
- Coders' Rights Project
- Computer Fraud And Abuse Act Reform
- Content Blocking
- Copyright Trolls
- Council of Europe
- Cyber Security Legislation
- CyberSLAPP
- Defend Your Right to Repair!
- Development Agenda
- Digital Books
- Digital Radio
- Digital Video
- DMCA
- DMCA Rulemaking
- Do Not Track
- DRM
- E-Voting Rights
- EFF Europe
- Encrypting the Web
- Export Controls
- FAQs for Lodsys Targets
- File Sharing
- Fixing Copyright? The 2013-2016 Copyright Review Process
- FTAA
- Genetic Information Privacy
- Hollywood v. DVD
- How Patents Hinder Innovation (Graphic)
- ICANN
- International Privacy Standards
- Internet Governance Forum
- Law Enforcement Access
- Legislative Solutions for Patent Reform
- Locational Privacy
- Mandatory Data Retention
- Mandatory National IDs and Biometric Databases
- Mass Surveillance Technologies
- Medical Privacy
- National Security and Medical Information
- National Security Letters
- Net Neutrality
- No Downtime for Free Speech
- NSA Spying
- OECD
- Offline : Imprisoned Bloggers and Technologists
- Online Behavioral Tracking
- Open Access
- Open Wireless
- Patent Busting Project
- Patent Trolls
- Patents
- PATRIOT Act
- Pen Trap
- Policy Analysis
- Printers
- Public Health Reporting and Hospital Discharge Data
- Reading Accessibility
- Real ID
- RFID
- Search Engines
- Search Incident to Arrest
- Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
- Social Networks
- SOPA/PIPA: Internet Blacklist Legislation
- Student and Community Organizing
- Student Privacy
- Stupid Patent of the Month
- Surveillance and Human Rights
- Surveillance Drones
- Terms Of (Ab)Use
- Test Your ISP
- The "Six Strikes" Copyright Surveillance Machine
- The Global Network Initiative
- The Law and Medical Privacy
- TPP's Copyright Trap
- Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement
- Travel Screening
- TRIPS
- Trusted Computing
- Video Games
- Wikileaks
- WIPO
- Transparency
- Uncategorized