Top Features
Since August, EFF and others have been telling Apple to cancel its new child safety plans. Apple is now changing its tune about one component of its plans: the Messages app will no longer send notifications to parent accounts.
That’s good news. As we’ve previously explained, this feature would have broken end-to-end encryption in Messages, harming the privacy and safety of its users. So we’re glad to see that Apple has listened to privacy and child safety advocates about how to respect the rights of youth. In addition, sample images shared by Apple show the text in the feature has changed from “sexually explicit” to “naked,” a change that LBTQ+ rights advocates have asked for, as the phrase “sexually explicit” is often used as cover to prevent access to LGBTQ+ material. Now, Apple needs to take the next step, and stop its plans to scan photos uploaded to a user’s iCloud Photos library for child sexual abuse images (CSAM). Apple must draw the line at invading people’s private content for the purposes of law enforcement
The Utah Supreme Court is the latest stop in EFF’s roving campaign to establish your Fifth Amendment right to refuse to provide your password to law enforcement. Along with the ACLU, we filed an amicus brief in State v. Valdez, arguing that the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination prevents the police from forcing suspects to reveal the contents of their minds. That includes revealing a memorized passcode or directly entering the passcode to unlock a device. As we write in the brief: The State cannot compel a suspect to recall and share information that exists only in his mind.
It seems like everywhere we turn we see dystopian stories about technology’s impact on our lives and our futures—from tracking-based surveillance capitalism to street level government surveillance to the dominance of a few large platforms choking innovation to the growing pressure by authoritarian governments to control what we see and say—the landscape can feel bleak. Exposing and articulating these problems is important, but so is envisioning and then building a better future. That’s where our new podcast comes in.
You can listen to How to Fix the Internet, with EFF’s Cindy Cohn and Special Advisor Danny O’Brien, wherever you get podcasts. If you like it, please let us know! The new season of How to Fix the Internet is made possible with the support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology.
EFF Updates
We're piloting an audio version of EFFector's Newsletter. Listen here on YouTube.
It is with heavy hearts that we mourn and celebrate our friend and colleague Elliot Harmon, who passed away peacefully following a lengthy battle with melanoma. We will deeply miss Elliot’s clever mind, powerful pen, generous heart, and expansive kindness. We will carry his memory with us in our work.
The Right to Repair movement got a boost this week, when Apple announced a new program, Self Service Repair, that will let people buy genuine Apple parts and tools to make some of their own repairs to limited Apple products such as newer iPhones and some Macs. Apple’s announcement shows there has been considerable pressure on the company to change its designs and policy to answer consumer demand for the right to repair. Let’s keep it up and keep them on the right track.
For the last month, Facebook has been at the center of a lengthy, damaging news cycle brought on by the release of thousands of pages of leaked documents, sent to both Congress and news outlets by former Facebook data scientist Frances Haugen. That’s good—it’s high time to turn public outrage into meaningful action that will rein in the company. But it’s equally important that the solutions be tailored, carefully, to solve the actual issues that need to be addressed. Here’s where EFF believes Congress and the U.S. government could make a serious impact.
Technology rarely invents new societal problems. Instead, it digitizes them, supersizes them, and allows them to balloon and duplicate at the speed of light. That’s exactly the problem we’ve seen with location-based, crowd-sourced “public safety” apps like Citizen.
Governments and corporations are tracking how we go about our lives with a unique marker that most of us cannot hide or change: our own faces. Across the country, communities are pushing back with laws that restrain this dangerous technology. In response, some governments and corporations are claiming that these laws should only apply to some forms of face recognition, such as face identification, and not to others, such as face clustering. We disagree. This post explores many of the various kinds of face recognition, and explains why all must be addressed by laws.
Announcements
Join the CyPurr Collective, a grassroots group participating in the Electronic Frontier Alliance, on Saturday, November 20, to talk about some general tools and thoughts for buying these fancy items, including what's out there, what to look out for, and what to be aware of.
On November 24, EFF's Jillian York and David Greene will present the results of a year-long consultation reimagining the Santa Clara Principles on Transparency and Accountability in Content Moderation.
If you’re at Comic-Con, stop by for a panel with EFF Special Advisor Cory Doctorow on November 28, at 1:30pm, for a discussion of coming of age while dealing with ghosts, identity, destiny, and choices and consequences.
Job Openings
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is looking for a Media Relations Director to facilitate EFF’s relationships with news gatherers around the world. The ideal candidate is someone who has experience with journalists and journalism, either in public relations or as a journalist.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is looking for a litigator who is excited about fostering digital creativity, justice and innovation to join our legal team. Ideal candidates will have substantial experience in patent litigation and policy, plus experience with copyright, trademark or trade secret issues.
MiniLinks
Vienna's art museums have started using OnlyFans after experiencing removals of nude art by Facebook and other platforms.
A St. Louis Post Dispatch reporter discovered a vulnerability on the Missouri state education website that exposed Social Security numbers of 100,000 teachers, but Missouri's governor—apparently knowing nothing about the law and even less about technology—called this a "hack" and says he will seek to prosecute.
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