A new law rolls back certain internet privacy measures. How can you shield your browsing data?
If you don’t want your data going to advertisers, there are a few practical steps you can take to help mask your browsing history. Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, suggests using a virtual private network to connect online, which creates a secure tunnel for your...
CENSORED BY FACEBOOK
Facebook has blocked users in Thailand from accessing a video that shows the country’s king strolling through a German shopping mall wearing a crop-top revealing his distinctive tattoos, accompanied by one of his mistresses. Gennie Gebhart, a researcher for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says Facebook is in a difficult...
Appeals Court Won’t Help Megaupload User to Get His Files Back
EFF Senior Staff Attorney Mitch Stoltz informs TorrentFreak that they will continue their efforts to return the data to the rightful owners. “We’re disappointed that the appeals court refused to step in to get this case moving. Kyle Goodwin and many others have been waiting five years to get their...
Hanging by a thread: How the online nerdy T-shirt economy exists in an IP world
Mitch Stoltz, senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, pointed to one court case where T-shirts overall had been tested. And in Kienitz v. Sconnie Nation, LLC , the court ruled in favor of a shirt that used another photographer's photo as the basis for the design. Stoltz also...
Free Speech Lawyer: "There's Nothing Wrong With Having Something To Hide"
KUNR: What kind of challenges to the First Amendment are you seeing in your work as a lawyer specializing in free speech protections? Greene: We see a lot of things. There’s still of lot of classic cases of civil lawsuits between people based on online speech. We’re also very involved...
Do social media companies bear some responsibility when violent acts are posted on their pages?
Police are currently engaged in a 5-state manhunt across Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana and Michigan for the murder suspect, 37-year-old Steve Stephens. On Easter Sunday, Stephens uploaded a video showing him shoot an apparently random victim, Robert Godwin, Sr. Sophia Cope is a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier...
Grindr sued after spurned lover turns one man into an unwanting wang-magnet
"What are Grindr's legal responsibilities," asks Aaron Mackey, a Frank Stanton legal fellow at the Electronic Frontier Foundation from out of nowhere. "And what are its corporate and ethical responsibilities to its users when it learns that its platform is being abused in this way?"
Why Facebook won't change
When Steve Stephens allegedly killed Robert Godwin in cold blood on Easter Sunday and put videos of the shooting on Facebook , there wasn’t much Stephens’ friends or followers could do to prevent it from appearing in their news feeds. Sophia Cope, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said...
Civil Rights Groups Condemn Proposal to Collect Social Media Data from Chinese Travelers
Civil rights organizations are sounding the alarm over a proposal by Trump’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that would require visa holders from China to turn over their social media “handles.” “On the surface, this is a policy directed at citizens from China seeking to travel to the U.S. on...
The Hypocritical Logic Behind Republican Plans to Ban Online Porn (Unless You Pay $20)
Draft bills in at least 13 state legislatures would require all internet-enabled devices to come installed with an anti-porn filter, which adult consumers could choose to have removed for a fee of $20. But of course it's not only monetary costs to consumers that are are a concern. The porn-filter...
Is your digital life private? A lot depends on your provider
Internet providers can see a wide range of their customers’ online activity, according to Jeremy Gillula, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the San Francisco-based digital civil liberties group. Unless you’re using special tools like a virtual private network or the free, privacy-minded Tor internet browser , he...
How to Disappear Is it possible to move through a smart city undetected?
As the tools of surveillance have become more sophisticated, detecting them has become a harder task. “There was a time when you could spot cameras,” Tien says. Maybe a bodega would hang up a metal sign warning passersby that they were being recorded by a clunky, conspicuous device. “But now,...
FBI allays some critics with first use of new mass-hacking warrant
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, for example, commended the feds for asking a judge to review exactly what data the FBI would and would not touch in victimized devices, which were located across the country. It was a "positive step" toward accountability and transparency in FBI computer break-ins, EFF staff attorney...
With Register of Copyrights bill, big media seeks its own in-house lobbyist
H.R. 1695’s supporters insist that it would increase accountability by giving Congress more of a voice in the selection process. But in practice, making the appointment one more contentious political contest would create a Register who’s only really accountable to the lobbyists and special interests that help her get selected...
US government drops effort to unmask anti-Trump Twitter account
The US government has backed down from its attempt to unmask an anonymous Twitter account that criticized the Trump administration, a victory for free speech advocates. Jamie Lee Williams, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said: “The fact that they withdrew the summons doesn’t necessarily show that the...
