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🤫 Meta's Secret Spying Scheme | EFFector 37.7
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/metas-secret-spying-scheme-effector-377
July 2, 2025, 5:15 PM
Keeping up on the latest digital rights news has never been easier. With a new look, EFF's EFFector newsletter covers the latest details on our work defending your rights to privacy and free expression online.
EFFector 37.7 covers some of the very sneaky tactics that Meta has been using to track you online, and how you can mitigate some of this tracking. In this issue, we're also explaining the legal processes police use to obtain your private online data, and providing an update on the NO FAKES...
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Podcast Episode: Cryptography Makes a Post-Quantum Leap
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/podcast-episode-cryptography-makes-post-quantum-leap
July 2, 2025, 7:05 AM
The cryptography that protects our privacy and security online relies on the fact that even the strongest computers will take essentially forever to do certain tasks, like factoring prime numbers and finding discrete logarithms which are important for RSA encryption, Diffie-Hellman key exchanges, and elliptic curve encryption. But what happens when those problems – and the cryptography they underpin – are no longer infeasible for computers to solve? Will our online defenses collapse? 

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EFFecting Change: EFF Turns 35!
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/effecting-change-eff-turns-35
July 1, 2025, 10:09 PM
We're wishing EFF a happy birthday on July 10! Since 1990, EFF's lawyers, activists, analysts, and technologists have used everything in their toolkit to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people of the world. They've seen it all and in this special edition of our EFFecting Change livestream series, leading experts at EFF will explore what's next for technology users.
EFFecting Change Livestream Series:EFF Turns 35!Thursday, July 10th11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Paci...
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Flock Safety’s Feature Updates Cannot Make Automated License Plate Readers Safe
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/flock-safetys-feature-updates-cannot-make-automated-license-plate-readers-safe
June 28, 2025, 12:36 AM
Two recent statements from the surveillance company—one addressing Illinois privacy violations and another defending the company's national surveillance network—reveal a troubling pattern: when confronted by evidence of widespread abuse, Flock Safety has blamed users, downplayed harms, and doubled down on the very systems that enabled the violations in the first place.
Flock's aggressive public relations campaign to salvage its reputation comes as no surprise. Last month, we described how in...
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Today's Supreme Court Decision on Age Verification Tramples Free Speech and Undermines Privacy
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/todays-supreme-court-decision-age-verification-tramples-free-speech-and-undermines
June 27, 2025, 8:16 PM
Today’s decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton is a direct blow to the free speech rights of adults. The Court ruled that “no person—adult or child—has a First Amendment right to access speech that is obscene to minors without first submitting proof of age.” This ruling allows states to enact onerous age-verification rules that will block adults from accessing lawful speech, curtail their ability to be anonymous, and jeopardize their data security and privacy. These are real and i...
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Georgia Court Rules for Transparency over Private Police Foundation
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/georgia-court-rules-transparency-over-private-police-foundation
June 27, 2025, 3:51 PM
A Georgia court has decided that private non-profit Atlanta Police Foundation (APF) must comply with public records requests under the Georgia Open Records Act for some of its functions on behalf of the Atlanta Police Department. This is a major win for transparency in the state. 
 The lawsuit was brought last year by the Atlanta Community Press Collective (ACPC) and Electronic Frontier Alliance member Lucy Parsons Labs (LPL). It concerns the APF’s refusal to disclose records about its role ...
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Two Courts Rule On Generative AI and Fair Use — One Gets It Right
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/two-courts-rule-generative-ai-and-fair-use-one-gets-it-right
June 26, 2025, 7:22 PM
Things are speeding up in generative AI legal cases, with two judicial opinions just out on an issue that will shape the future of generative AI: whether training gen-AI models on copyrighted works is fair use. One gets it spot on; the other, not so much, but fortunately in a way that future courts can and should discount.
The core question in both cases was whether using copyrighted works to train Large Language Models (LLMs) used in AI chatbots is a lawful fair use. Under the US Copyright Act,...
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Ahead of Budapest Pride, EFF and 46 Organizations Call on European Commission to Defend Fundamental Rights in Hungary
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/ahead-budapest-pride-eff-and-46-organizations-call-european-commission-defend
June 26, 2025, 4:10 PM
This week, EFF joined EDRi and nearly 50 civil society organizations urging the European Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen, Executive Vice President Henna Virkunnen, and Commissioners Michael McGrath and Hadja Lahbib to take immediate action and defend human rights in Hungary.
The European Commission has a responsibility to protect EU fundamental rights, including the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals in Hungary and across the Union
With Budapest Pride just two days away, Hungary has crim...
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How Cops Can Get Your Private Online Data
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/how-cops-can-get-your-private-online-data
June 26, 2025, 3:13 PM
Can the cops get your online data? In short, yes. There are a variety of US federal and state laws which give law enforcement powers to obtain information that you provided to online services. But, there are steps you as a user and/or as a service provider can take to improve online privacy.Law enforcement demanding access to your private online data goes back to the beginning of the internet. In fact, one of  EFF’s first cases, Steve Jackson Games v. Secret Service, exemplified the now all-...
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California’s Corporate Cover-Up Act Is a Privacy Nightmare
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/californias-corporate-cover-act-privacy-nightmare
June 25, 2025, 5:21 PM
California lawmakers are pushing one of the most dangerous privacy rollbacks we’ve seen in years. S.B. 690, what we’re calling the Corporate Cover-Up Act, is a brazen attempt to let corporations spy on us in secret, gutting long-standing protections without a shred of accountability.
The Corporate Cover-Up Act is a massive carve-out that would gut California’s Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) and give Big Tech and data brokers a green light to spy on us without consent for just about any rea...
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FBI Warning on IoT Devices: How to Tell If You Are Impacted
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/fbi-warning-iot-devices-how-tell-if-you-are-impacted
June 25, 2025, 4:03 AM
On June 5th, the FBI released a PSA titled “Home Internet Connected Devices Facilitate Criminal Activity.” This PSA largely references devices impacted by the latest generation of BADBOX malware (as named by HUMAN’s Satori Threat Intelligence and Research team) that EFF researchers also encountered primarily on Android TV set-top boxes. However, the malware has impacted tablets, digital projectors, aftermarket vehicle infotainment units, picture frames, and other types of IoT devices. 
On...
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Why Are Hundreds of Data Brokers Not Registering with States?
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/why-are-hundreds-data-brokers-not-registering-states
June 24, 2025, 5:58 PM
Written in collaboration with Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
Hundreds of data brokers have not registered with state consumer protection agencies. These findings come as more states are passing data broker transparency laws that require brokers to provide information about their business and, in some cases, give consumers an easy way to opt out.
In recent years, California, Texas, Oregon, and Vermont have passed data broker registration laws that require brokers to identify themselves to state reg...
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Major Setback for Intermediary Liability in Brazil: Risks and Blind Spots
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/major-setback-intermediary-liability-brazil-risks-and-blind-spots
June 24, 2025, 3:33 PM
This is the third post of a series about internet intermediary liability in Brazil. Our first post gives an overview of Brazil's current internet intermediary liability regime, set out in a law known as "Marco Civil da Internet," the context of its approval in 2014, and the beginning of the Supreme Court's judgment of such regime in November 2024. Our second post provides a bigger picture of the Brazilian context underlying the court's analysis and its most likely final decision. 
The court...
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Major Setback for Intermediary Liability in Brazil: How Did We Get Here?
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/major-setback-intermediary-liability-brazil-how-did-we-get-here
June 24, 2025, 3:13 PM
This is the second post of a series about intermediary liability in Brazil. Our first post gives an overview of Brazil's current intermediary liability regime, the context of its approval in 2014, and the beginning of the Supreme Court's analysis of such regime in November 2024. Our third post provides an outlook on justices' votes up until June 23, underscoring risks, mitigation measures, and blind spots of their potential decision.
The Brazilian Supreme Court has formed a majority to overturn ...
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Copyright Cases Should Not Threaten Chatbot Users’ Privacy
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/copyright-cases-should-not-threaten-chatbot-users-privacy
June 24, 2025, 2:07 AM
Like users of all technologies, ChatGPT users deserve the right to delete their personal data. Nineteen U.S. States, the European Union, and a host of other countries already protect users’ right to delete. For years, OpenAI gave users the option to delete their conversations with ChatGPT, rather than let their personal queries linger on corporate servers. Now, they can’t. A badly misguided court order in a copyright lawsuit requires OpenAI to store all consumer ChatGPT conversations indefin...
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The NO FAKES Act Has Changed – and It’s So Much Worse
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/no-fakes-act-has-changed-and-its-so-much-worse
June 23, 2025, 7:39 PM
A bill purporting to target the issue of misinformation and defamation caused by generative AI has mutated into something that could change the internet forever, harming speech and innovation from here on out.
The Nurture Originals, Foster Art and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act aims to address understandable concerns about generative AI-created “replicas” by creating a broad new intellectual property right. That approach was the first mistake: rather than giving people targeted tools...
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New Journalism Curriculum Module Teaches Digital Security for Border Journalists
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/new-journalism-curriculum-module-teaches-digital-security-border-journalists
June 23, 2025, 4:00 PM
Module Developed by EFF, Freedom of the Press Foundation, and University of Texas, El Paso Guides Students Through Threat Modeling and Preparation SAN FRANCISCO – A new college journalism curriculum module teaches students how to protect themselves and their digital devices when working near and across the U.S.-Mexico border. 
“Digital Security 101: Crossing the US-Mexico Border” was developed by Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Director of Investigations Dave Maass and Dr. Martin She...
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A Journalist Security Checklist: Preparing Devices for Travel Through a US Border
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/journalist-security-checklist-preparing-devices-travel-through-us-border
June 23, 2025, 3:31 PM
This post was originally published by the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF). This checklist complements the recent training module for journalism students in border communities that EFF and FPF developed in partnership with the University of Texas at El Paso Multimedia Journalism Program and Borderzine. We are cross-posting it under FPF's Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. It has been slightly edited for style and consistency.
Before diving in: This space is changing q...
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EFF to European Commission: Don’t Resurrect Illegal Data Retention Mandates
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/eff-european-commission-dont-resurrect-illegal-data-retention-mandates
June 23, 2025, 3:26 PM
The mandatory retention of metadata is an evergreen of European digital policy. Despite a number of rulings by Europe’s highest court, confirming again and again the incompatibility of general and indiscriminate data retention mandates with European fundamental rights, the European Commission is taking major steps towards the re-introduction of EU-wide data retention mandates. Recently, the Commission launched a Call for Evidence on data retention for criminal investigations—the first formal...
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Protect Yourself From Meta’s Latest Attack on Privacy
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/protect-yourself-metas-latest-attack-privacy
June 20, 2025, 3:01 PM
Researchers recently caught Meta using an egregious new tracking technique to spy on you. Exploiting a technical loophole, the company was able to have their apps snoop on users’ web browsing. This tracking technique stands out for its flagrant disregard of core security protections built into phones and browsers. The episode is yet another reason to distrust Meta, block web tracking, and end surveillance advertising. 
Fortunately, there are steps that you, your browser, and your government c...
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A Token of Appreciation for Sustaining Donors 💞
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/eff35-sustaining-donors
June 19, 2025, 5:04 PM
You'll get a custom EFF35 Challenge Coin when you become a monthly or annual Sustaining Donor by July 10. It’s that simple.
Give Once a Month
Give Once a YEar
Start a Convenient recurring donation Today!
But here's a little more background for all of you detail-oriented digital rights fans. EFF's 35th Anniversary celebration has begun and we're commemorating three and a half decades for fighting for your privacy, security, and free expression rights online. These values are hallmarks of fre...
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Strategies for Resisting Tech-Enabled Violence Facing Transgender People
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/strategies-resisting-tech-enabled-violence-facing-transgender-people
June 18, 2025, 10:49 PM
Today's Supreme Court’s ruling in U.S. v. Skrmetti upholding bans on gender-affirming care for youth makes it clear: trans people are under attack. Threats to trans rights and healthcare are coming from legislatures, anti-trans bigots (both organized and not), apathetic bystanders, and more. Living under the most sophisticated surveillance apparatus in human history only makes things worse. While the dangers are very much tangible and immediate, the risks posed by technology can amplify them i...
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Apple to Australians: You’re Too Stupid to Choose Your Own Apps
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/apple-australians-youre-too-stupid-choose-your-own-apps
June 18, 2025, 9:35 PM
Apple has released a scaremongering, self-serving warning aimed at the Australian government, claiming that Australians will be overrun by a parade of digital horribles if Australia follows the European Union’s lead and regulates Apple’s “walled garden.” 
The EU’s Digital Markets Act is a big, complex, ambitious law that takes aim squarely at the source of Big Tech’s power: lock-in. For users, the DMA offers interoperability rules that let Europeans escape US tech giants’ walled g...
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LGBT Q&A: Your Online Speech and Privacy Questions, Answered
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/lgbt-qa-your-online-speech-and-privacy-questions-answered
June 18, 2025, 5:21 PM
This year, like almost all years before, LGBTQ+ Pride month is taking place at a time of burgeoning anti-LGBTQ+ violence, harassment, and criticism. Lawmakers and regulators are passing legislation restricting freedom of expression and privacy for LGBTQ+ individuals and fueling offline intolerance. Online platforms are also complicit in this pervasive ecosystem by censoring pro-LGBTQ+ speech, forcing LGBTQ+ individuals to self-censor or turn to VPNs to avoid being profiled, harassed, doxxed, or ...
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Big Brother's Little Problem | EFFector 37.6
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/big-brothers-little-problem-effector-376
June 18, 2025, 5:10 PM
Just in time for summer, EFFector is back—with a brand new look! If you're not signed up, now's a perfect time to subscribe and get the latest details on EFF's work defending your rights to privacy and free expression online.
EFFector 37.6 highlights an important role that EFF has to protecting you online: watching the watchers. In this issue, we're pushing back on invasive car-tracking technologies, and we share an update on our case challenging the illegal disclosure of government records to...
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Podcast Episode: Securing Journalism on the ‘Data-Greedy’ Internet
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/podcast-episode-securing-journalism-data-greedy-internet
June 18, 2025, 7:05 AM
Public-interest journalism speaks truth to power, so protecting press freedom is part of protecting democracy. But what does it take to digitally secure journalists’ work in an environment where critics, hackers, oppressive regimes, and others seem to have the free press in their crosshairs?


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Betting on Your Digital Rights: EFF Benefit Poker Tournament at DEF CON 33
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/betting-your-digital-rights-eff-benefit-poker-tournament-def-con-33
June 17, 2025, 5:17 AM
Hacker Summer Camp is almost here... and with it comes the Third Annual EFF Benefit Poker Tournament at DEF CON 33 hosted by security expert Tarah Wheeler.
Please join us on Friday, August 8th, at high noon at our new location: Planet Hollywood Poker Room. The fees haven’t changed; it’s still $250 to register plus $100 the day of the tournament with unlimited rebuys. (AND all players will receive a complimentary EFF Titanium Level Membership for the year.)
Tarah Wheeler—EFF board member ...
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Connectivity is a Lifeline, Not a Luxury: Telecom Blackouts in Gaza Threaten Lives and Digital Rights
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/connectivity-lifeline-not-luxury-telecom-blackouts-gaza-threaten-lives-and-digital
June 16, 2025, 9:17 PM
For the third time since October 2023, Gaza has faced a near-total telecommunications blackout—plunging over 2 million residents into digital darkness and isolating them from the outside world. According to Palestinian digital rights organization 7amleh, the latest outage began on June 11, 2025, and lasted three days before partial service was restored on June 14. As of today, reports from inside Gaza suggest that access has been cut off again in central and southern Gaza. 
Blackouts like the...
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Google’s Advanced Protection Arrives on Android: Should You Use It?
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/googles-advanced-protection-arrives-android-should-you-use-it
June 16, 2025, 8:33 PM
With this week’s release of Android 16, Google added a new security feature to Android, called Advanced Protection. At-risk people—like journalists, activists, or politicians—should consider turning it on. Here’s what it does, and how to decide if it’s a good fit for your security needs.
To get some confusing naming schemes clarified at the start: Advanced Protection is an extension of Google’s Advanced Protection Program, which protects your Google account from phishing and harmful ...
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EFF to NJ Supreme Court: Prosecutors Must Disclose Details Regarding FRT Used to Identify Defendant
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/eff-nj-supreme-court-prosecutors-must-disclose-details-regarding-frt-used-identify
June 16, 2025, 7:56 PM
This post was written by EFF legal intern Alexa Chavara.
Black box technology has no place in the criminal legal system. That’s why we’ve once again filed an amicus brief arguing that the both the defendant and the public have a right to information regarding face recognition technology (FRT) that was used during an investigation to identify a criminal defendant.
Back in June 2023, we filed an amicus brief along with Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the National Association o...
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Protecting Minors Online Must Not Come at the Cost of Privacy and Free Expression
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/protecting-minors-online-must-not-come-cost-privacy-and-free-expression
June 16, 2025, 3:52 PM
The European Commission has taken an important step toward protecting minors online by releasing draft guidelines under Article 28 of the Digital Services Act (DSA). EFF recently submitted feedback to the Commission’s Targeted Consultation, emphasizing a critical point: Online safety for young people must not come at the expense of privacy, free expression, and equitable access to digital spaces.
We support the Commission’s commitment to proportionality, rights-based protections, and its eff...
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A New Digital Dawn for Syrian Tech Users
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/new-digital-dawn-syrian-tech-users
June 12, 2025, 3:19 PM
U.S. sanctions on Syria have for several decades not only restricted trade and financial transactions, they’ve also severely limited Syrians’ access to digital technology. From software development tools to basic cloud services, Syrians were locked out of the global internet economy—stifling innovation, education, and entrepreneurship.
EFF has for many years pushed for sanctions exemptions for technology in Syria, as well as in Sudan, Iran, and Cuba. While civil society had early wins in s...
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EFFecting Change: Pride in Digital Freedom
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/effecting-change-pride-digital-freedom
June 12, 2025, 12:06 AM
Join us for our next EFFecting Change livestream this Thursday! We're talking about emerging laws and platform policies that affect the digital privacy and free expression rights of the LGBT+ community, and how this echoes the experience of marginalized people across the world.
EFFecting Change Livestream Series:Pride in Digital FreedomThursday, June 12th4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Pacific - Check Local TimeThis event is LIVE and FREE!
Join our panel featuring EFF Senior Staff Technologist Daly Barnett...
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Congress Can Act Now to Protect Reproductive Health Data
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/congress-can-act-now-protect-reproductive-health-data
June 11, 2025, 10:58 PM
State, federal, and international regulators are increasingly concerned about the harms they believe the internet and new technology are causing to users of all categories. Lawmakers are currently considering many proposals that are intended to provide protections to the most vulnerable among us. Too often, however, those proposals do not carefully consider the likely unintended consequences or even whether the law will actually reduce the harms it’s supposed to target. That’s why EFF suppor...
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Oppose STOP CSAM: Protecting Kids Shouldn’t Mean Breaking the Tools That Keep Us Safe
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/oppose-stop-csam-protecting-kids-shouldnt-mean-breaking-tools-keep-us-safe
June 10, 2025, 11:08 PM
A Senate bill re-introduced this week threatens security and free speech on the internet. EFF urges Congress to reject the STOP CSAM Act of 2025 (S. 1829), which would undermine services offering end-to-end encryption and force internet companies to take down lawful user content.   
TAKE ACTION
Tell Congress Not to Outlaw Encrypted Apps
As in the version introduced last Congress, S. 1829 purports to limit the online spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), also known as child pornograp...
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Despite Changes, A.B. 412 Still Harms Small Developers
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/despite-changes-ab-412-still-harms-small-developers
June 10, 2025, 10:07 PM
California lawmakers are continuing to promote a bill that will reinforce the power of giant AI companies by burying small AI companies and non-commercial developers in red tape, copyright demands and potentially, lawsuits. After several amendments, the bill hasn’t improved much, and in some ways has actually gotten worse. If A.B. 412 is passed, it will make California’s economy less innovative, and less competitive. 
The Bill Threatens Small Tech Companies
A.B. 412 masquerades as a transpa...
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35 Years for Your Freedom Online
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/35-years-internet-freedom
June 10, 2025, 7:04 AM
Once upon a time we were promised flying cars and jetpacks. Yet we've arrived at a more complicated timeline where rights advocates can find themselves defending our hard-earned freedoms more often than shooting for the moon. In tough times, it's important to remember that your vision for the future can be just as valuable as the work you do now.
Thirty-five years ago, a small group of folks saw the coming digital future and banded together to ensure that technology would empower people, not opp...
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NYC Lets AI Gamble with Child Welfare
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/nyc-lets-ai-gamble-child-welfare
June 9, 2025, 9:36 PM
The Markup revealed in its reporting last month that New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) has been quietly deploying an algorithmic tool to categorize families as “high risk". Using a grab-bag of factors like neighborhood and mother’s age, this AI tool can put families under intensified scrutiny without proper justification and oversight.
ACS knocking on your door is a nightmare for any parent, with the risk that any mistakes can break up your family and have your...
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Criminalizing Masks at Protests is Wrong
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/criminalizing-masks-protests-wrong
June 9, 2025, 8:37 PM
There has been a crescendo of states attempting to criminalize the wearing of face coverings while attending protests. Now the President has demanded, in the context of ongoing protests in Los Angeles: “ARREST THE PEOPLE IN FACE MASKS, NOW!”
But the truth is: whether you are afraid of catching an airborne illness from your fellow protestors, or you are concerned about reprisals from police or others for expressing your political opinions in public, you should have the right to wear a mask. ...
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Privacy Victory! Judge Grants Preliminary Injunction in OPM/DOGE Lawsuit
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/privacy-victory-judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-opmdoge-lawsuit
June 9, 2025, 7:28 PM
Court to Decide Scope of Injunction Later This Week  NEW YORK–In a victory for personal privacy, a New York federal district court judge today granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) disclosure of records to DOGE and its agents.
Judge Denise L. Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York found that OPM violated the Privacy Act and bypassed its established cybersecurity practices under the Administrat...
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Victory! Austin Organizers Cancel City's Flock ALPR Contract
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/victory-austin-organizers-cancel-citys-flock-alpr-contract
June 6, 2025, 10:38 PM
Austin organizers turned out to rebuke the city’s misguided contract with Flock Safety— and won. This successful pushback from the community means at the end of the month Austin police will no longer be able to use the surveillance network of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) across the city.
Two years ago Austin City Council approved this controversial contract, despite strong local opposition. We knew then that these AI-driven surveillance systems weren’t just creepy, they are pron...
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EFF to Department Homeland Security: No Social Media Surveillance of Immigrants
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/eff-department-homeland-security-no-social-media-surveillance-immigrants
June 6, 2025, 8:51 PM
EFF submitted comments to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its subcomponent U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), urging them to abandon a proposal to collect social media identifiers on forms for immigration benefits. This collection would mark yet a further expansion of the government’s efforts to subject immigrants to social media surveillance, invading their privacy and chilling their free speech and associational rights for fear of being denied key immigration be...
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EFF to Court: Young People Have First Amendment Rights
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/eff-court-young-people-have-first-amendment-rights
June 6, 2025, 4:39 PM
Utah cannot stifle young people’s First Amendment rights to use social media to speak about politics, create art, discuss religion, or to hear from other users discussing those topics, EFF argued in a brief filed this week.
EFF filed the brief in NetChoice v. Brown, a constitutional challenge to the Utah Minor Protection in Social Media Act. The law prohibits young people from speaking to anyone on social media outside of the users with whom they are connected or those users’ connections. It...
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Keeping the Web Up Under the Weight of AI Crawlers
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/keeping-web-under-weight-ai-crawlers
June 5, 2025, 11:13 PM
If you run a site on the open web, chances are you've noticed a big increase in traffic over the past few months, whether or not your site has been getting more viewers, and you're not alone. Operators everywhere have observed a drastic increase in automated traffic—bots—and in most cases attribute much or all of this new traffic to AI companies.
Background
AI—in particular, Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI (genAI)—rely on compiling as much information from relevant sources...
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EFF to the FTC: DMCA Section 1201 Creates Anti-Competitive Regulatory Barriers
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/eff-files-comments-ftc-regarding-reducing-anti-competitive-regulatory-barriers
June 5, 2025, 10:33 PM
As part of multi-pronged effort towards deregulation, the Federal Trade Commission has asked the public to identify any and all “anti-competitive” regulations. Working with our friends at Authors Alliance, EFF answered, calling attention to a set of anti-competitive regulations that many don’t  recognize as such: the triennial exemptions to Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and the cumbersome process on which they depend.
Copyright grants exclusive rights to creators,...
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The Dangers of Consolidating All Government Information
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/dangers-consolidating-all-government-information
June 5, 2025, 5:15 PM
The Trump administration has been heavily invested in consolidating all of the government’s information into a single searchable, or perhaps AI-queryable, super database. The compiling of all of this information is being done with the dubious justification of efficiency and modernization–however, in many cases, this information was originally siloed for important reasons: to protect your privacy, to prevent different branches of government from using sensitive data to punish or harass you, a...
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Judges Stand With Law Firms (and EFF) Against Trump’s Executive Orders
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/judges-stand-law-firms-and-eff-against-trumps-executive-orders
June 5, 2025, 3:00 PM
“Pernicious.”
“Unprecedented... cringe-worthy.”
“Egregious.”
“Shocking.” 
These are just some of the words that federal judges used in recent weeks to describe President Trump’s politically motivated and vindictive executive orders targeting law firms that have employed people or represented clients or causes he doesn’t like. 
But our favorite word by far is “unconstitutional.” 
EFF was one of the very first legal organizations to publicly come out in support of Perk...
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Statement on California State Senate Advancing Dangerous Surveillance Bill
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/statement-california-state-senate-advancing-dangerous-surveillance-bill
June 4, 2025, 9:45 PM
In the wake of the California State Senate’s passage of S.B. 690, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), TechEquity, Consumer Federation of California, Tech Oversight California, ACLU California Action, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and the California Low Income Consumers Coalition issued a joint statement warning that the bill would put the safety and privacy of millions of Californians at serious risk:
“SB 690 gives the green-light to dystopian big tech surveillance practices which wi...
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Podcast Episode: Why Three is Tor's Magic Number
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/05/podcast-episode-why-three-tors-magic-number
June 4, 2025, 7:08 AM
Many in Silicon Valley, and in U.S. business at large, seem to believe innovation springs only from competition, a race to build the next big thing first, cheaper, better, best. But what if collaboration and community breeds innovation just as well as adversarial competition?


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San Diegans Push Back on Flock ALPR Surveillance
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/san-diegans-push-back-flock-alpr-surveillance
June 3, 2025, 8:13 PM
Approaching San Diego’s first annual review of the city's controversial Flock Safety contract, a local coalition is calling on the city council to roll back this dangerous and costly automated license plate reader (ALPR) program.
The TRUST Coalition—a grassroots alliance including Electronic Frontier Alliance members Tech Workers Coalition San Diego and techLEAD—has rallied to stop the unchecked spread of ALPRs in San Diego. We’ve previously covered the coalition’s fight for surveillan...
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