In our 646th issue:

• UPDATES
• MINILINKS
• ANNOUNCEMENTS

Hundreds of Pages of NSA Spying Documents to be Released in Response to EFF Lawsuit

In a major victory in one of EFF's Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, the Justice Department conceded that it will release hundreds of pages of documents, including FISA court opinions, related to the government's secret interpretation of Section 215 of the Patriot Act. The NSA has relied upon this law for years to mass collect the phone records of millions of innocent Americans.

EFF Files Brief on Behalf of Rep. Sensenbrenner in NSA Spying Case

EFF filed a brief on behalf of Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), the author of the original USA PATRIOT Act, in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against the NSA. In the brief, Sensenbrenner argues that Congress never intended this law to permit the NSA's collection of the records of every telephone call made to, from and within the United States.

EFF Updates

An Illustration of How the NSA Misleads the Public Without Technically Lying

The Wall Street Journal published an important investigation last week, reporting that the NSA has direct access to many key telecommunications switches around the country and "has the capacity to reach roughly 75% of all U.S. Internet traffic." The Director of National Intelligence and the NSA released a statement about the story later that evening. If you read the statement quickly, it seems like the NSA is disputing the WSJ story. But on careful reading, they actually do not deny any of it.

One Key to Rule Them All: Threats Against Service Provider Private Encryption Keys

EFF has worked hard to convince large and small websites to support HTTPS by default, and we're happy to see steady progress from major service providers on this front. While increased deployment of HTTPS is a huge step forward in securing the web and protecting user communications, it is not a silver bullet. There are many types of attacks on HTTPS that we need to be vigilant about, but here we focus on one in particular -- how safe are the private encryption keys of service providers?

EFF Amicus Asks Supreme Court to Review Warrantless Smartphone Searches

Are police allowed to rummage through the contents of a cell phone when a person is arrested? The U.S. Supreme Court is currently deciding whether to grant review in two cases involving the thorny issue. We've filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court asking it to grant review in Riley v. California, a case involving the warrantless search of a smartphone incident to arrest.

An Open Letter to John Kerry: Tell Ethiopia to Release Eskinder Nega and Stop Imprisoning Bloggers

Approaching the second anniversary of Eskinder Nega's imprisonment, EFF calls upon Secretary of State John Kerry to stand up for free speech and urge Ethiopia to release the journalist.

The Cost of Censorship in Libraries: 10 Years Under the Children’s Internet Protection Act

This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the enforcement of the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which is supposed to encourage public libraries and schools to filter child pornography and obscene or "harmful to minors" images from the library's Internet connection in exchange for continued federal funding. Unfortunately, aggressive interpretations of this law have resulted in extensive and unnecessary censorship in libraries.

Pushing for Perfect Forward Secrecy, an Important Web Privacy Protection

Sites that use perfect forward secrecy can provide better security to users in cases where the encrypted data is being monitored and recorded by a third party. More sites should enable it, and more users should demand it of the sites they trust with their private data.

miniLinks

Guardian: How to remain secure against NSA surveillance

Security expert (and EFF Board Member) Bruce Schneier explains how to stay secure in your online communications after the latest NSA revelations.

OTI: Patent Assertion and Startup Innovation

In this report, Professor Colleen Chien examines exactly how venture capitalists and startups feel about patents and patent trolls.

YouTube: "Calling NSA"

A man calls the NSA in an attempt to retrieve a lost email. Hilarity ensues.

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Administrivia

Editor: Adi Kamdar, Activist
editor@eff.org

EFFector is a publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
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