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Deeplinks

EFF"s Deeplinks Blog: Noteworthy news from around the internet

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EFFecting Change: Pride in Digital Freedom

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/12

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, EFF

Congress Can Act Now to Protect Reproductive Health Data

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/11

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 supports Rep

Oppose STOP CSAM: Protecting Kids Shouldn’t Mean...

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/10

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 pornography. CSAM

Despite Changes, A.B. 412 Still Harms Small Developers

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/10

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 transparency

35 Years for Your Freedom Online

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/10

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 oppress

NYC Lets AI Gamble with Child Welfare

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/09

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 children

Criminalizing Masks at Protests is Wrong

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/09

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. Attempts

Privacy Victory! Judge Grants Preliminary Injunction...

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/09

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 Administrative

Victory! Austin Organizers Cancel City's Flock ALPR...

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/06

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 prone to

EFF to Department Homeland Security: No Social Media...

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/06

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

EFF to Court: Young People Have First Amendment Rights

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/06

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 also

Keeping the Web Up Under the Weight of AI Crawlers

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/05

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 (i.e.,

EFF to the FTC: DMCA Section 1201 Creates...

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/05

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, but only as

The Dangers of Consolidating All Government Information

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/05

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, and to

Judges Stand With Law Firms (and EFF) Against Trump’s...

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/05

“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 Perkins Coie when it became the

Statement on California State Senate Advancing...

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/04

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 will

Podcast Episode: Why Three is Tor's Magic Number

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/04

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?

San Diegans Push Back on Flock ALPR Surveillance

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/03

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 surveillance oversight,

Hell No: The ODNI Wants to Make it Easier for the...

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/03

New reporting has revealed that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is attempting to create the Intelligence Community’s Data Consortium–a centralized online marketplace where law enforcement and spy agencies can peruse and buy very personal digital data about you collected by data brokers. Not only is this a massive escalation of the deeply unjust data broker loophole: it’s also another repulsive signal that your privacy means nothing to the intelligence community. Imagine a

The Right to Repair Is Law in Washington State

Deeplinks ·

2025/06/03

Thanks in part to your support, the right to repair is now law in Washington. Gov. Bob Ferguson signed two bills guaranteeing Washingtonians' right to access tools, parts, and information so they can fix personal electronics, appliances, and wheelchairs. This is the epitome of common-sense legislation. When you own something, you should have the final say about who fixes, adapts, or modifies it—and how. When you own something, you should have the final say about who fixes, adapts, or modifies it—and

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