S.T.O.P. is Working to ‘Ban The Scan’ in New York

Facial recognition is a threat to privacy, racial justice, free expression, and information security. EFF supports strict restrictions on face recognition use by private companies, and total bans on government use of the technology. Face recognition in all of its forms, including face scanning and real-time tracking, pose threats to civil liberties and individual privacy. […]

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Wave of increased food insecurity hits West and Central Africa

This is a four million increase in the number of people currently dealing with food insecurity in that region. Mali is facing the worst situation – around 2,600 people there are presumed to be experiencing catastrophic hunger – IPC food classification index phase 5 (read our explainer on the IPC system here). “The time to […]

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Bad Amendments to Section 702 Have Failed (For Now)—What Happens Next?

Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted against considering a largely bad bill that would have unacceptably expanded the tentacles of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, along with reauthorizing it and introducing some minor fixes. Section 702 is Big Brother’s favorite mass surveillance law that EFF has been fighting since it was first […]

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Myanmar: Middle class ‘disappearing’ amid uptick in brutal fighting

In a new report published on Thursday UNDP said that the middle class has shrunk by half, compared with before the 2021 military coup, and that three quarters of the country’s population is either living in poverty or “perilously close” to the national poverty line. “The new data show that less than 25 per cent […]

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Virtual Reality and the 'Virtual Wall'

When EFF set out to map surveillance technology along the U.S.-Mexico border, we weren’t exactly sure how to do it. We started with public records—procurement documents, environmental assessments, and the like—which allowed us to find the GPS coordinates of scores of towers. During a series of in-person trips, we were able to find even more. […]

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Protect Yourself from Election Misinformation

Welcome to your U.S. presidential election year, when all kinds of bad actors will flood the internet with election-related disinformation and misinformation aimed at swaying or suppressing your vote in November.  So… what’re you going to do about it?  As EFF’s Corynne McSherry wrote in 2020, online election disinformation is a problem that has had […]

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Why U.S. House Members Opposed the TikTok Ban Bill

What do House Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Barbara Lee have in common with House Republicans like Thomas Massie and Andy Biggs? Not a lot. But they do know an unconstitutional bill when they see one. These and others on both sides of the aisle were among the 65 House Members who voted “no” yesterday […]

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How to Figure Out What Your Car Knows About You (and Opt Out of Sharing When You Can)

Cars collect a lot of our personal data, and car companies disclose a lot of that data to third parties. It’s often unclear what’s being collected, and what’s being shared and with whom. A recent New York Times article highlighted how data is shared by G.M. with insurance companies, sometimes without clear knowledge from the […]

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Location Data Tracks Abortion Clinic Visits. Here’s What to Know

Our concerns about the selling and misuse of location data for those seeking reproductive and gender healthcare are escalating amid a recent wave of cases and incidents demonstrating that the digital trail we leave is being used by anti-abortion activists. The good news is some states and tech companies are taking steps to better protect […]

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