Manifest V3: Open Web Politics in Sheep's Clothing

When Google introduced Manifest V3 in 2019, web extension developers were alarmed at the amount of functionality that would be taken away for features they provide users. Especially features like blocking trackers and providing secure connections....

Police Aerial Surveillance Endangers Our Ability to Protest

The ACLU of Northern California has concluded a year-long Freedom of Information campaign by uncovering massive spying on Black Lives Matter protests from the air. The California Highway Patrol directed aerial surveillance, mostly done by...

PDX Privacy: Building Community Defenses in Difficult Times

The Electronic Frontier Alliance is made up of more than seventy groups of concerned community members, often including workers in the tech industry who see issues of the industry from the inside. One of the Alliance’s most active members is PDX...

The Internet Archive Transforms Access to Books in a Digital World

In honor of Open Access Week, and particularly this year’s theme of structural equity, we wanted to highlight a project from the Internet Archive that is doing extraordinary work promoting access to knowledge. The bad news: that project is also...

From Bangkok to Burlington — The Public Interest Social Internet

This post will be about two very different social networks: The first is Front Porch Forum, a Vermont-local platform that is “a micro hyperlocal social network,” tied to local services and with a huge percentage of uptake of local users. A caveat...

After Years of Delays and Alarmingly Flimsy Evidence, Security Expert Ola Bini’s Trial Set for This Week

For over two years EFF has been following the case of Swedish computer security expert Ola Bini, who was arrested in April, 2019, in Ecuador, following Julian Assange's ejection from that country’s London Embassy. Bini’s pre-trial hearing, which...

Flight of the Concord Drones

This blog post was written by Kenny Gutierrez, EFF Bridge Fellow.The City Council of Concord, California, is tone deaf to community concerns regarding a proposed police Unmanned Aerial Surveillance (UAS) system – commonly referred to as drones. In...

Stop Military Surveillance Drones from Coming Home

A federal statute authorizes the Pentagon to transfer surveillance technology, among other military equipment, to state and local police. This threatens privacy, free speech, and racial justice. So Congress should do the right thing and enact...

The Other 20-Year Anniversary: Freedom and Surveillance Post-9/11

The twentieth anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2021 are a good time to reflect on the world we’ve built since then. Those attacks caused incalculable heartbreak, anger and fear. But by now it is clear that far too many things that were...

Geofence Warrants Threaten Civil Liberties and Free Speech Rights in Kenosha and Nationwide

In the days following the police shooting of Jacob Blake on August 23, 2020, hundreds of protestors marched in the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Federal law enforcement, it turns out, collected location data on many of those protesters. The...

The Catalog of Carceral Surveillance: Voice Recognition and Surveillance

This post has been updated to provide additional context about patents and patent applications, which are indications of an entity’s interest in a particular product but not proof that the product is currently in development or available for use....

The Catalog of Carceral Surveillance: Prison Gaming and AR/VR Services

This post has been updated to provide additional context about patents and patent applications, which are indications of an entity’s interest in a particular product but not proof that the product is currently in development or available for use....

The Catalog of Carceral Surveillance: Mobile Correctional Facility Robots

This post has been updated to provide additional context about patents and patent applications, which are indications of an entity’s interest in a particular product but not proof that the product is currently in development or available for use....

The Catalog of Carceral Surveillance: Monitoring Online Purchases of Inmates’ Family and Friends

This post has been updated to provide additional context about patents and patent applications, which are indications of an entity’s interest in a particular product but not proof that the product is currently in development or available for use....

Chicago Inspector General: Using ShotSpotter Does Not Justify Crime Fighting Utility

ˀThe Chicago Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has released a highly critical report on the Chicago Police Department’s use of ShotSpotter, a surveillance technology that relies on a combination of artificial intelligence and human “acoustic...

OnlyFans Content Creators Are the Latest Victims of Financial Censorship 

Update (8/26/21): Victory! OnlyFans has reversed course and suspended its plans to ban sexually explicit content, saying it has “secured assurances necessary” from banking partners and payout providers to enable it to continue to serve all...

O (No!) Canada: Fast-Moving Proposal Creates Filtering, Blocking and Reporting Rules—and Speech Police to Enforce Them

Policymakers around the world are contemplating a wide variety of proposals to address “harmful” online expression. Many of these proposals are dangerously misguided and will inevitably result in the censorship of all kinds of lawful and valuable...

The Cryptocurrency Surveillance Provision Buried in the Infrastructure Bill is a Disaster for Digital Privacy

The forthcoming Senate draft of Biden's infrastructure bill—a 2,000+ page bill designed to update the United States’ roads, highways, and digital infrastructure—contains a poorly crafted provision that could create new surveillance requirements...

Pegasus Project Shows the Need for Real Device Security, Accountability, and Redress for Those Facing State-Sponsored Malware

EFF has warned for years of the danger of the misuse of powerful state-sponsored malware. Until governments around the world get out of the way and actually support security for all of us, including accountability and redress for victims, these...