We commend for her strongly worded letter condemning the mass police surveillance enabled by Fog Data Science. We hope that the will act quickly to stop the data broker industry that leads to these privacy invasions.
Aaron Mackey’s Tweets
Calling all law students! EFF is accepting applications for spring semester legal interns now through Nov. 15. Apply here:
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EFF filed a lawsuit against Sacramento and its public utility for spying on entire neighborhoods' electricity usage, violating residents' privacy and targeting Asian communities.
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The lawsuit claims Sacramento police used SMUD data to identify high electricity users, information that shaped marijuana enforcement operations. sacbee.com/news/equity-la
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Victory! Federal court stops unprecedented, horrible Arizona law that criminalizes recording the police within eight feet.
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A must-read from my colleagues' year-long investigation into a dangerous surveillance company.
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This important AP investigation is worth your time. It goes into a secretive law enforcement tool called Fog Reveal, which uses ad data to produce location records for police:
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You’ve never heard of Fog Data Science, but you should have. It’s the company turning your cell phone’s geolocation data into one of the most disturbing and wide-reaching surveillance systems ever used by police in the U.S. Read our investigation here. eff.org/deeplinks/2022.
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A win in our long-running fight to make secret law public.
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Nonprofits that share the data of supporters, clients, and visitors with third parties may be putting people in danger. This guide offers concrete steps to implement better privacy practices for your websites and email platforms.
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A lot of my work is aimed at getting access to these materials, but the First Amendment law is unsettled. Anyway, please don't read "pre-indictment" as some signal
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Of course, the DOJ advocates for maximum secrecy for search warrant materials during early stages. Which can frustrate public access into docs showing surveillance, because so many warrants don't lead to indictments.
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This part of the law is a mess, but several appellate courts have held that there is no 1A right of access to search warrant materials prior to an indictment. That's where the "pre-indictment" phrase comes from.
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I have no insight into DOJ, but the "pre-indictment" language isn't sly. It's describing the law around when the public's First Amendment right of access attaches to search warrant materials. It doesn't imply that an indictment is or is not coming.
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There's a sly reference, by quotation of a recent case, that this search took place in "the pre-indictment stage" of the case. See footnote 2. twitter.com/kyledcheney/st…
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In a recent decision supporting the right to anonymity online, the Court cites 8 cases that EFF lawyers have worked on. Not bad for a 15-page decision!
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Federal court rules that there is no copyright loophole when trying to identify anonymous internet users
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A federal district court ruled last month that FOSTA does not violate the First Amendment. Our clients disagree and so do we, which is why they're appealing.
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It’s Sunshine Week - the annual celebration of government transparency. How do EFF and celebrate? By naming and shaming the worst public officials and agencies who stymied public access in the past year.
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It's Sunshine Week, and it's time to unveil The Foilies, an annual series of faux awards for the most outrageous attempts to obstruct the public's right to government records—compiled by EFF and .
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FILED: We are urging an appeal court to reject a radical position held by San Bernardino law enforcement that search warrant materials related to electronic surveillance should remain under seal indefinitely.
Read our amicus brief in support of @EFF.
firstamendmentcoalition.org/2021/12/fac-ur
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my question about the mayor's new proposal potentially encouraging SFPD to misuse business districts' cameras to violate protesters' civil liberties has been answered: they're already doing it! latest brief was filed by ACLU NorCal and EFF 3 months ago:
eff.org/deeplinks/2021
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someone please explain how reversing SF’s facial recognition ban won’t be used to surveil protesters and homeless people existing twitter.com/LondonBreed/st…
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Early this morning, our dear friend and colleague passed away after a long illness. He lived too short a life but accomplished so much. We were honored that he chose to share his talents with us for 6 years and send our condolences to his loved ones.
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Journalism isn't a crime. Cybersecurity research isn't either. Real leaders don't unleash their attack dogs on the press when they expose government failures, they roll up their sleeves and fix the problem. kansascity.com/news/politics-
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and have important, valid missions. But speaking about democracy is not the same thing as speaking to people who are criminalized and/or vulnerable. 8/
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NEW: The Biden Admin. is piloting a program that takes away incarcerated people's mail and replaces it with scans. The program will push people away from paper mail, and toward the more expensive options provided by the BOP's corporate partners. Read more:
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Victory! A federal court has prevented Florida from enforcing a law that prohibits online services from deplatforming political candidates, ruling that it violates the First Amendment in several respects.
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🚨A year ago today, President Trump issued 5/28 Executive Order deputizing fed. agencies to retaliate against online social media services on his behalf. To mark this anniversary, + are releasing the records obtained from our FOIA lawsuit:
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Earlier this month, the city of Fullerton backed down from a "hacking" lawsuit that would have had an especially chilling effect on newsgathering and journalism online. fellow describes this as a "welcome win for data journalism."
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We applaud President Biden's revocation of the “Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship,” which threatened internet users’ ability to obtain truthful information online.
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s proposal to amend Section 230 is a bad-faith attempt to ensure we live in a world dominated by Facebook.
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What happens to FOIA requests that go unanswered?
They get nominated for our Golden Raspberry-style "awards" for officials who stand in the way of government transparency and freedom of information.
Here are the winners of this year's Foilies:
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Not all privacy laws are equal. VA's is not a victory for consumers; it's a gift to companies who want to sound good on privacy without having to do very much at all. It doubles down on some of the worst things about the way companies use data right now. It needs serious work.
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it's really hard to explain to people who don't live here how incredibly jarring it was to see the events unfold yesterday, not just because the events themselves were shocking, but because it completely upends the entire psychic geography of this place
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None of this is true. Just search for "FTC Violation" or "class action" and a company to find out, Senator.
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Jeff's threads on 230 are always spot on. This point is particularly relevant right now - powerful people/institutions would abuse this to silence those with less power. twitter.com/jkosseff/statu
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Great FOIA win!!
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After 10 months - we finally got the 9th Circuit's decision in a huge FOIA case, stating that 1) requesters can indeed get statistical gun data from ATF (which has not occurred in OVER a decade) and 2) querying government databases does not amount to creation of a new record. twitter.com/ShawnMusgrave/…
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