Location Tracking Tools Endanger Abortion Access. Lawmakers Must Act Now.

EFF wrote recently about Locate X, a deeply troubling location tracking tool that allows users to see the precise whereabouts of individuals based on the locations of their smartphone devices. Developed and sold by the data surveillance company...

The Human Toll of ALPR Errors

This post was written by Gowri Nayar, an EFF legal intern. Imagine driving to get your nails done with your family and all of a sudden, you are pulled over by police officers for allegedly driving a stolen car. You are dragged out of the car and...

Federal Appeals Court Finds Geofence Warrants Are “Categorically” Unconstitutional

In a major decision on Friday, the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that geofence warrants are “categorically prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.” Closely following arguments EFF has made in a number of cases, the court found that...

Senators Expose Car Companies’ Terrible Data Privacy Practices

In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last week, Senators Ron Wyden and Edward Markey urged the FTC to investigate several car companies caught selling and sharing customer information without clear consent. Alongside details...

EFF to FCC: SS7 is Vulnerable, and Telecoms Must Acknowledge That

It’s unlikely you’ve heard of Signaling System 7 (SS7), but every phone network in the world is connected to it, and if you have ever roamed networks internationally or sent an SMS message overseas you have used it. SS7 is a set of...

The Next Generation of Cell-Site Simulators is Here. Here’s What We Know.

Dozens of policing agencies are currently using cell-site simulators (CSS) by Jacobs Technology and its Engineering Integration Group (EIG), according to newly-available documents on how that company provides CSS capabilities to local law...

Car Makers Shouldn’t Be Selling Our Driving History to Data Brokers and Insurance Companies

You accelerated multiple times on your way to Yosemite for the weekend. You braked when driving to a doctor appointment. If your car has internet capabilities, GPS tracking or OnStar, your car knows your driving history.And now we know: your car...

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...