2 Fast 2 Legal: How EFF Helped a Security Researcher During DEF CON 32

This year, like every year, EFF sent a variety of lawyers, technologists, and activists to the summer security conferences in Las Vegas to help foster support for the security research community. While we were at DEF CON 32, security researcher Dennis Giese received a cease-and-desist letter on a Thursday afternoon for his talk scheduled just […]

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EFF Presses Federal Circuit To Make Patent Case Filings Public

Federal court records belong to everyone. But one federal court in Texas lets patent litigants treat courts like their own private tribunals, effectively shutting out the public. When EFF tried to intervene and push for greater access to a patent dispute earlier this year, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas rejected […]

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In These Five Social Media Speech Cases, Supreme Court Set Foundational Rules for the Future

The U.S. Supreme Court addressed government’s various roles with respect to speech on social media in five cases reviewed in its recently completed term. The through-line of these cases is a critically important principle that sets limits on government’s ability to control the online speech of people who use social media, as well as the […]

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The UN General Assembly and the Fight Against the Cybercrime Treaty

The final text of the United Nations Convention Against Cybercrime, adopted last Thursday by the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee, is now headed to the UN General Assembly for final approval. The last hours of deliberations were marked by drama as Iran repeatedly, though unsuccessfully, attempted to remove almost all human rights protections that survived […]

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Federal Appeals Court Finds Geofence Warrants Are “Categorically” Unconstitutional

In a major decision on Friday, the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that geofence warrants are “categorically prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.” Closely following arguments EFF has made in a number of cases, the court found that geofence warrants constitute the sort of “general, exploratory rummaging” that the drafters of the Fourth Amendment […]

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Victory! D.C. Circuit Rules in Favor of Animal Rights Activists Censored on Government Social Media Pages

In a big win for free speech online, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that a federal agency violated the First Amendment when it blocked animal rights activists from commenting on the agency’s social media pages. We filed an amicus brief in the case, joined by the Foundation for Individual Rights […]

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First Person: Stitching together a future following deadly siege

Asnia Dalan holds a bag she sewed following the training she received. The Olango Sindaw Ko Kauyagan Producer cooperative in Piagapo, a village in the hills above Lake Lanao, was set up in the wake of what is known as the siege of Marawi, in which terrorists affiliated with Islamic State attacked and occupied the […]

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To Fight Surveillance Pricing, We Need Privacy First

Digital surveillance is ubiquitous. Corporate snoops collect information about everything we do, everywhere we go, and everyone we communicate with. Then they compile it, store it, and use it against us.   Increasingly, companies exploit this information to set individualized prices based on personal characteristics and behavior. This “surveillance pricing” allows retailers to charge two people […]

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EFF and 12 Organizations Tell Bumble: Don’t Sell User Data Without Opt-In Consent

Bumble markets itself as a safe dating app, but it may be selling your deeply personal data unless you opt-out—risking your privacy for their profit. Despite repeated requests, Bumble hasn’t confirmed if they sell or share user data, and its policy is also unclear about whether all users can delete their data, regardless of where […]

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