EFF to Court: Electronic ankle monitoring is bad. Sharing that data is even worse.

The government violates the privacy rights of individuals on pretrial release when it continuously tracks, retains, and shares their location, EFF explained in a friend-of-the-court brief filed in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.In the case,...

Location Data Tracks Abortion Clinic Visits. Here’s What to Know

Our concerns about the selling and misuse of location data for those seeking reproductive and gender healthcare are escalating amid a recent wave of cases and incidents demonstrating that the digital trail we leave is being used by anti-abortion...

Sen. Wyden Exposes Data Brokers Selling Location Data to Anti-Abortion Groups That Target Abortion Seekers

This post was written by Jack Beck, an EFF legal internIn a recent letter to the FTC and SEC, Sen. Ron Wyden (OR) details new information on data broker Near, which sold the location data of people seeking reproductive healthcare to anti-abortion...

Unregulated, Exploitative, and on the Rise: Vera Institute's Report on Electronic Monitoring

While some have claimed the use of electronic monitoring (EM) is an alternative to physical detention in the criminal justice system, a new report by the Vera Institute of Justice provides the most detailed data yet showing that these claims don’t...

FTC Bars X-Mode from Selling Sensitive Location Data

Phone app location data brokers are a growing menace to our privacy and safety. All you did was click a box while downloading an app. Now the app tracks your every move and sends it to a broker, which then sells your location data to the highest...

The Government Shouldn’t Prosecute People With Unreliable “Black Box” Technology

On Tuesday, EFF urged the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the highest court in that state, to affirm that a witness who has no knowledge of the proprietary algorithm used in black box technology is not qualified to testify to its...

VICTORY! California Department of Justice Declares Out-of-State Sharing of License Plate Data Unlawful

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has issued a legal interpretation and guidance for law enforcement agencies around the state that confirms what privacy advocates have been saying for years: It is against the law for police to share data...

The Industry Discussion About Standards For Bluetooth-Enabled Physical Trackers is Finally Getting Started

Bluetooth-enabled location trackers such as Tiles and AirTags aren’t just a helpful way to find missing luggage or a misplaced wallet—they can also be easily slipped surreptitiously into a bag or car, allowing stalkers and abusers unprecedented...

Even the Government Thinks It Should Stop Buying Corporate Surveillance Data

Intern Nicholas Wilson was the primary author of this post.U.S. government intelligence agencies are buying data about us. The danger to our civil liberties is so extreme that even the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said...

Steering Mobility Data to a Better Privacy Regime

Cars today collect a lot more data than they used to, often leaving drivers' privacy unprotected. Car insurance is mainly regulated at the state level—there’s no federal privacy law for car data—but unsurprisingly there is an active government and...

Arrest of a Stalkerware-maker in Australia Underscores Link Between Stalkerware and Domestic Abuse

The ease with which bad actors can find a worldwide market for malicious apps that spy on people’s digital devices is at the center of an Australian Federal Police case against a man who, starting at the age of 15, wrote a stalkerware application...

Bad Data “For Good”: How Data Brokers Try to Hide Behind Academic Research

When data broker SafeGraph got caught selling location information on Planned Parenthood visitors, it had a public relations trick up its sleeve. After the company agreed to remove family planning center data from its platforms in response to...

Massachusetts' Highest Court Upholds Cell Tower Dump Warrant

This blog post was drafted with help from former EFF Legal Intern Emma Hagemann.Massachusetts’ highest court has upheld the collection of mass cell tower data, despite recognizing that this data not only provides investigators with “highly...

Data Brokers and True the Vote are the Real Villains of "2000 Mules" Movie

2000 Mules is a movie which claims to expose election fraud with phone app location data. While these claims have already been thoroughly debunked, the movie also deserves condemnation for performing wildly invasive research on thousands of...

How to Disable Ad ID Tracking on iOS and Android, and Why You Should Do It Now

The ad identifier - aka “IDFA” on iOS, or “AAID” on Android - is the key that enables most third-party tracking on mobile devices. Disabling it will make it substantially harder for advertisers and data brokers to track and profile you, and will...

SafeGraph’s Disingenuous Claims About Location Data Mask a Dangerous Industry

On Tuesday, Motherboard reported that data broker SafeGraph was selling location information “related to visits to clinics that provide abortions including Planned Parenthood facilities.” This included where people came from and where they went...

An EFF Investigation: Mystery GPS Tracker On A Supporter’s Car

Being able to accurately determine your location anywhere on the planet is a useful technological trick. But when tracking isn’t done by you, but to you—without your knowledge or consent—it’s a violation of your privacy. That’s why at EFF we’ve...

In 2021, the Police Took a Page Out of the NSA’s Playbook: 2021 in Review

With increasing frequency, law enforcement has been using unconstitutional, suspicionless digital dragnet searches in an attempt to identify unknown suspects in criminal cases. Whether these searches are for everyone who was near a building where...

EFF Files New Lawsuit Against California Sheriff for Sharing ALPR Data with ICE and CBP

The Marin County Sheriff illegally shares the sensitive location information of millions of drivers with out-of-state and federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The Sheriff...