The leading nonprofit defending digital privacy, free speech, and innovation.
FEATURED UPDATE
San Francisco, California—While many technology companies continue to step up their privacy game by adopting best practices to protect sensitive customer information when the government demands user data, telecommunications companies are failing to prioritize user privacy when the government comes knocking, an EFF annual survey shows. Even tech giants such as Apple, Facebook, and Google can do more to fully stand behind their users. EFF’s seventh annual “Who Has Your Back” report, released today, digs into the ways many technology...
FEATURED UPDATE
In 2014’s Alice v. CLS Bank , the Supreme Court ruled that an abstract idea does not become eligible for a patent simply by being implemented on a generic computer. Since then, Alice has provided a lifeline for real businesses threatened or sued with bogus patents. This week, on the third anniversary of Alice , EFF is launching a new series called Saved by Alice where we’ll collect these stories of times when Alice came to the rescue. Over the...
FEATURED UPDATE
In the United States, everyone – even people accused of offensive conduct – has the right to communicate anonymously, and that right should never be infringed without due process. Our Constitution guarantees this, whether your speech is popular or distasteful. At the same time, people who have been harmed by an anonymous speaker also have a right to seek justice, and, where necessary, that process can include unmasking the speaker. Following a rash of bogus defamation lawsuits designed primarily to...
Pull the Plug on Internet Spying Programs
Description:
Every day, the U.S. government sweeps up the emails, text messages, and other online communications of millions of innocent Americans. Congress has a chance to rein in this unconstitutional spying when a key surveillance authority expires at the end of this year.
...
Privacy Badger
Description:
Privacy Badger is a browser add-on that stops advertisers and other third-party trackers from secretly tracking where you go and what pages you look at on the web. If an advertiser seems to be tracking you across multiple websites without your permission, Privacy Badger automatically blocks that...
Surveillance Self-Defense
Description:
Surveillance Self-Defense is EFF's online guide to defending yourself and your friends from surveillance by using secure technology and developing careful practices...
The Latest
Californians: Demand That Your Legislature Restore Your Broadband Privacy Rights
Three state Senate committees will hear and vote on A.B 375 next week, legislation that will restore your broadband privacy rights. Earlier this year, Congress voted to repeal federal privacy rules that kept your ISP from selling information about who you are and what you do online without...
Stalemate Continues in Negotiations Over European Copyright Filters
This week is an important one in the ongoing negotiations over new copyright rules in Europe—which will have reverberations all over the world. As you may recall , the negotiations centre around two worrisome proposals being pushed by publisher and music industry lobby groups for inclusion in a new...
Requiring Judicial Review for Every Gag Order Is a Simple Way to Have Our Backs: Apple Does but Google and Facebook Fall Short
As a civil liberties organization, it’s our job to evaluate how tech companies handle our most private data and to encourage them to do better year over year. Our Who Has Your Back report is designed to do both, which is one reason we revisit the report’s criteria...
AT&T, Verizon, Other Telco Providers Lag Behind Tech Industry in Protecting Users from Government Overreach, EFF Annual Survey Shows
San Francisco, California—While many technology companies continue to step up their privacy game by adopting best practices to protect sensitive customer information when the government demands user data, telecommunications companies are failing to prioritize user privacy when the government comes knocking, an EFF annual survey shows. Even tech giants such...
New Research Estimates Value of Removing DRM Locks
Note: We’ve been in touch with a group of economists at the University of Glasgow who are investigating the market value on interoperability. Just in time for “Day Against DRM,” here are some of their initial conclusions. My co-authors and I at the University of Glasgow are investigating how...
Third Circuit Declares First Amendment Right to Record Police
The First Amendment protects our right to use electronic devices to record on-duty police officers, according to a new ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Fields v. Philadelphia . This right extends to anyone with a recording device, journalists...
Court Orders Prolific Patent Troll Shipping & Transit LLC To Pay Defendant’s Legal Bill
Shipping & Transit LLC, formerly known as Arrivalstar , is one of the most prolific patent trolls ever. It has filed more than 500 lawsuits alleging patent infringement. Despite having filed so many cases, it has never had a court rule on the validity of its patents. In recent...
McMansion Hell Take-Down Controversy Illustrates Why the Supreme Court Should Clarify the Limits of the CFAA
When McMansion Hell blogger Kate Wagner received Zillow’s letter last month demanding that she take down her architecture parody blog, she was scared. So scared that she temporarily disabled access to her blog via McMansionHell.com until she could find an attorney. We’re happy she found us...
Trump’s FBI Pick Has a Troubling History on Digital Liberties
President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Christopher Wray, will begin his confirmation process next week , giving lawmakers an opportunity to press him on his previous statements about expansive surveillance authorities and aggressive copyright prosecution. Defense of the USA PATRIOT Act During his tenure as Assistant...
Amid Unprecedented Controversy, W3C Greenlights DRM for the Web
Early today, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards body publicly announced its intention to publish Encrypted Media Extensions (EME)—a DRM standard for web video—with no safeguards whatsoever for accessibility, security research or competition, despite an unprecedented internal controversy among its staff and members over this issue. EME...
