Category: Technology

When we use the internet, we’re entrusting tech companies with some of our most private information. These companies have promised they’ll keep our data safe. But what happens when the government comes knocking at their doors? In our latest EFFector newsletter, we hear from an EFF client whose data was given to ICE after Google […]

Agencies Ignored EFF’s Public-Records Requests Regarding Unlawful Efforts to Locate People Who Criticized the Government or Attended Protests. SAN FRANCISCO – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today demanding public records about their use of administrative subpoenas to try to identify their online […]

Wellcome Collection via Wikimedia, CC BY-NC Whether through TV crime dramas or cinema blockbusters about dinosaur theme parks, DNA is a staple of modern popular culture – its double-helix structure one of science’s most iconic visualisations. Yet remarkably, the young Swiss scientist who discovered DNA in the first place is largely forgotten. Born in Basel […]

The scientists have demonstrated a practical route to dramatically boosting the intensity of high-power laser light for the first time. The results, published in Nature, could unlock the path towards creating the most intense light ever produced in a laboratory. This could open the door to experiments that probe the fundamental laws of physics by […]

People building the future of the social web — interoperable and decentralized — need to protect themselves against copyright liability. Like anyone who creates and operates platforms for user-uploaded content, the hosts of the decentralized social web can take preventive measures to reduce their legal exposure when a user posts material that violates someone’s copyright. […]

jijomathaidesigners/Shutterstock When evolutionary biologist Joseph Popp coded the first documented piece of ransomware in 1989, he had little idea it would become a major criminal business model capable of bringing economies to their knees. Popp, who worked for the World Health Organization at the time, wanted to warn people about the dangers of ignoring health […]

Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future was a groundbreaking science fiction comic serial, first appearing in the UK comic The Eagle in 1950. Now, more than 75 years later, a reinvention of the series is underway, with the first new graphic novel written by Alex de Campi (Bad Girls and Madi) with art by Marc […]

For years, EFF has pushed technology companies to make real human rights commitments—and to live up to them. In response to growing evidence that Palantir’s tools help power abusive immigration enforcement by ICE, we sent the company a detailed letter asking how the promises in its own human rights framework extends to that work. This […]

Section 230 helps make it possible for online communities to host user speech: from restaurant reviews, to fan fiction, to collaborative encyclopedias. But recent debates about the law often overlook how it works in practice. To mark its 30th anniversary, EFF is interviewing leaders of online platforms about how they handle complaints, moderate content, and […]

Wikimedia, CC BY In the novel When There Are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift, the Chernobyl disaster and its legacy is extrapolated to a near future where natural habitats are depleted and precarious. This work of eco-fiction deftly explores issues of possible paths to a future where animals return to a nature depleted area. In […]