The Foilies 2025 | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Recognize the Worst in Government Transparency  Co-written by MuckRock’s Michael Morisy, Dillon Bergin, and Kelly Kauffman The public’s right to access government information is constantly under siege across the United States, from both sides of the political aisle. In Maryland, where Democrats hold majorities, the attorney general and state legislature are pushing a bill to […]

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Anti-Surveillance Mapmaker Refuses Flock Safety’s Cease and Desist Demand

Flock Safety loves to crow about the thousands of local law enforcement agencies around the United States that have adopted its avian–themed automated license plate readers (ALPRs). But when a privacy activist launched a website to map out the exact locations of these pole-mounted devices, the company tried to clip his wings.   The company sent […]

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Exposing Surveillance at the U.S.-Mexico Border: 2024 Year in Review in Pictures

Some of the most picturesque landscapes in the United States can be found along the border with Mexico. Yet, from San Diego’s beaches to the Sonoran Desert, from Big Bend National Park to the Boca Chica wetlands, we see vistas marred by the sinister spread of surveillance technology, courtesy of the federal government.   EFF refuses […]

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Customs & Border Protection Fails Baseline Privacy Requirements for Surveillance Technology

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has failed to address six out of six main privacy protections for three of its border surveillance programs—surveillance towers, aerostats, and unattended ground sensors—according to a new assessment by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). In the report, GAO compared the policies for these technologies against six of the key […]

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U.S. Border Surveillance Towers Have Always Been Broken

A new bombshell scoop from NBC News revealed an internal U.S. Border Patrol memo claiming that 30 percent of camera towers that compose the agency’s “Remote Video Surveillance System” (RVSS) program are broken. According to the report, the memo describes “several technical problems” affecting approximately 150 towers. Except, this isn’t a bombshell. What should actually […]

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