Tourism ‘intrinsically susceptible’ to climate shocks, political unrest, pandemic threat

Addressing a high-level meeting on tourism as part of the General Assembly’s first ever Sustainability Week, Dennis Francis said it was a vital driver of economic growth and empowerment. In 2023, the sector contributed three per cent to the global gross domestic product (GDP), amounting to $3.3 trillion, and employed one in every ten people […]

Continue Reading

Women in Afghanistan: The future ‘depends on them’

Released by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) on Wednesday, Listening to Women Entrepreneurs in Afghanistan, Their Struggle and Resilience, analyzes data collected over the last three years, providing one of the most detailed views into the changing circumstances of women entrepreneurs in the country. “Women entrepreneurs have demonstrated incredible grit, boldness, and resourcefulness under the […]

Continue Reading

Americans Deserve More Than the Current American Privacy Rights Act

EFF is concerned that a new federal bill would freeze consumer data privacy protections in place, by preempting existing state laws and preventing states from creating stronger protections in the future. Federal law should be the floor on which states can build, not a ceiling. We also urge the authors of the American Privacy Rights Act […]

Continue Reading

Indigenous Kalinago lead the way towards making Dominica ‘climate resilient’

Dominica, which lies in Eastern Caribbean, is particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events, which are being exacerbated by the climate crisis: Hurricane Maria in 2017 was a devastating example, destroying many homes and buildings. The indigenous Kalinago people were particularly affected but, since then, community leaders have been working with the UN to help its […]

Continue Reading

Reject Nevada’s Attack on Encrypted Messaging, EFF Tells Court

LAS VEGAS — The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a coalition of partners urged a court to protect default encrypted messaging and children’s privacy and security in a brief filed today. The brief by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Nevada, the EFF, Stanford Internet Observatory Research Scholar Riana Pfefferkorn, and six […]

Continue Reading

UN leaders urge ‘wholesale reform’ of global financial architecture

Addressing a high-level meeting of the General Assembly on debt sustainability, António Guterres outlined the crippling impact of debt on developing economies. “No example of the international financial architecture’s failure is more glaring than its handling of debt. The last four years have been nothing short of a debt disaster,” he said. He noted that […]

Continue Reading

Congress Must Stop Pushing Bills That Will Benefit Patent Trolls

The U.S. Senate is moving forward with two bills that would enrich patent trolls, patent system insiders, and a few large companies that rely on flimsy patents, at the expense of everyone else.  One bill, the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA) would bring back some of the worst software patents we’ve seen, and even re-introduce […]

Continue Reading

The Motion Picture Association Doesn’t Get to Decide Who the First Amendment Protects

Twelve years ago, internet users spoke up with one voice to reject a law that would build censorship into the internet at a fundamental level. This week, the Motion Picture Association (MPA), a group that represents six giant movie and TV studios, announced that it hoped we’d all forgotten how dangerous this idea was. The […]

Continue Reading

EFF Submits Comments on FRT to Commission on Civil Rights

Our faces are often exposed and, unlike passwords or pin numbers, cannot be remade. Governments and businesses, often working in partnership, are increasingly using our faces to track our whereabouts, activities, and associations. This is why EFF recently submitted comments to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which is preparing a report on face recognition […]

Continue Reading