Government officials across the U.S. frequently promote the supposed, and often anecdotal, public safety benefits of automated license plate readers (ALPRs), but rarely do they examine how this very same technology poses risks to public safety that may outweigh the crimes they are attempting to address in the first...
California lawmakers are debating an ill-advised bill that would require internet users to show their ID in order to look at sexually explicit content. EFF has sent a letter to California legislators encouraging them to oppose Assembly Bill 3080, which would have the result of censoring the internet...
In our recent comparison of Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads, we detail a few of the ways the similar-at-a-glance microblogging social networks differ, and one of the main distinctions is how much control you have over what you see as a user. We’ve detailed how to get your Mastodon...
The ongoing Twitter exodus sparked life into a new way of doing social media. Instead of a handful of platforms trying to control your life online, people are reclaiming control by building more open and empowering approaches to social media. Some of these you may have heard of: Mastodon, Bluesky,...
Did you know Disney’s Steamboat Willie entered the public domain this year? Since its 1928 debut, U.S. Congress has made multiple changes to copyright law, extending Disney’s ownership of this cultural icon for almost a century. A century.Creativity should spark more creativity.That’s not how intellectual property laws are...
Artificial intelligence will neither solve all our problems nor likely destroy the world, but it could help make our lives better if it’s both transparent enough for everyone to understand and available for everyone to use in ways that augment us and advance our goals — not for corporations or...
California Assemblymember Phil Ting has introduced A.B. 1814, a bill that would supposedly regulate police use of facial recognition technology. The problem is that it would do little to actually change the status quo of how police use this invasive and problematic technology. Police use of facial recognition...
This extraordinarily misguided and speech-chilling call to label social media platforms as harmful to adolescents is shameful fear-mongering that lacks scientific evidence and turns the nation’s top physician into a censor.
WASHINGTON, DC—Matthew Guariglia, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), has been named a National Governing Institutions Fellow at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. This multi-month residential fellowship is designed to support scholars working on research that can impact policy making. Guariglia—who...
It’s time for the second installment of campfire tales from The Encryptids. Do you ever feel like tech companies still own the devices you’ve paid for? Monsieur Jackalope tells us why interoperability plays a key role in giving you freedom in tech.
This post was written by EFF legal intern Danya Hajjaji.Law enforcement should be required to obtain a warrant to search data contained in abandoned cell phones, EFF and others explained in a friend-of-the-court brief to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.The case, United States v. Hunt, involves law enforcement’s...
The Electronic Frontier Alliance is proud to have such a diverse membership, and is especially proud to ally with Encode Justice chapters. Encode Justice is a community that includes over 1,000 high school and college students across over 40 U.S. states and 30 countries. Organized into chapters, these...
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 enforcement. A proposal document from Jacobs Technology, provided to the Massachusetts State Police (MSP)...
