Trade measures critical to ending plastic pollution

That assessment by UN trade and development body, UNCTAD, comes in an update published on Thursday ahead of the final round of talks to develop a legally binding international instrument against plastic pollution. “Although plastics are directly linked to the triple planetary crisis – pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change – there is still no comprehensive international […]

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TechEd Collab: Building Community in Arizona Around Tech Awareness

Earlier this year, EFF welcomed Technology Education Collaborative (TEC) into the Electronic Frontier Alliance (EFA). TEC empowers everyday people to become informed users of today’s extraordinary technology, and helps people better understand the tech that surrounds them on a daily basis. TEC does this by hosting in-person, hands-on events, including right to repair workshops, privacy […]

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California A.B. 412 Stalls Out—A Win for Innovation and Fair Use

A.B. 412, the flawed California bill that threatened small developers in the name of AI “transparency,” has been delayed and turned into a two-year bill. That means it won’t move forward in 2025—a significant victory for innovation, freedom to code, and the open web. EFF opposed this bill from the start. A.B. 412 tried to […]

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👮 Amazon Ring Is Back in the Mass Surveillance Game | EFFector 37.9

EFF is gearing up to beat the heat in Las Vegas for the summer security conferences! Before we make our journey to the Strip, we figured let’s get y’all up-to-speed with a new edition of EFFector. This time we’re covering an illegal mass surveillance scheme by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, calling out dating apps for […]

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Sanctioning Facilitators of Iran’s Petroleum and Petrochemical Trade

Today, the United States is taking decisive action to disrupt the Iranian regime’s ability to fund its destabilizing activities, including its nuclear program, support for terrorist groups, and oppression of its own people. The Department of State is imposing sanctions on 20 entities for their involvement in the trade of Iranian petroleum, petroleum products, or […]

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Deputy UN chief urges bold action to transform food systems at global summit in Addis Ababa

Delivering closing remarks at the UN Food Systems Summit +4 Stocktaking Moment (UNFSS+4) in Addis Ababa, co-hosted by Ethiopia and Italy, Ms. Mohammed praised the growing momentum behind food systems transformation. But she also warned that with just five years left to 2030, “hunger and malnutrition persist. Climate shocks, conflict, debt, and inequality are widening […]

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EFF to Court: The DMCA Didn’t Create a New Right of Attribution, You Shouldn’t Either

Amid a wave of lawsuits targeting how AI companies use copyrighted works to train large language models that generate new works, a peculiar provision of copyright law is suddenly in the spotlight: Section 1202 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Section 1202 restricts intentionally removing or changing copyright management information (CMI), such as a […]

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Ryanair’s CFAA Claim Against Booking.com Has Nothing To Do with Actual Hacking

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) is supposed to be about attacks on computer systems. It is not, as a federal district court suggested in Ryanair v. Booking.com, applicable when someone uses valid login credentials to access information to which those credentials provide access. Now that the case is on appeal, EFF has filed […]

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When Your Power Meter Becomes a Tool of Mass Surveillance

Simply using extra electricity to power some Christmas lights or a big fish tank shouldn’t bring the police to your door. In fact, in California, the law explicitly protects the privacy of power customers, prohibiting public utilities from disclosing precise “smart” meter data in most cases.  Despite this, Sacramento’s power company and law enforcement agencies […]

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You Went to a Drag Show—Now the State of Florida Wants Your Name

If you thought going to a Pride event or drag show was just another night out, think again. If you were in Florida, it might land your name in a government database. That’s what’s happening in Vero Beach, FL, where the Florida Attorney General’s office has subpoenaed a local restaurant, The Kilted Mermaid, demanding surveillance […]

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