PODCAST

Deeplinks

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

All Episodes

We're Envisioning A Better Future

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/22

Whether you've been following EFF for years or just discovered us (hello!), you've probably noticed that our team is kind of obsessed with the ✨future✨. From people soaring through the sky, to space cats, geometric unicorns, and (so many) mechas—we're always imagining what the future could look like when we get things right. That same spirit inspired EFF's 35th anniversary celebration. And this year, members can get our new EFF 35 Cityscape t-shirt plus a limited-edition challenge coin with a

EFF to Court: Protect Our Health Data from DHS

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/21

The federal government is trying to use Medicaid data to identify and deport immigrants. So EFF and our friends at EPIC and the Protect Democracy Project have filed an amicus brief asking a judge to block this dangerous violation of federal data privacy laws. Last month, the AP reported that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had disclosed to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) a vast trove of sensitive data obtained from states about people who obtain

Dating Apps Need to Learn How Consent Works

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/21

Staying safe whilst dating online should not be the responsibility of users—dating apps should be prioritizing our privacy by default, and laws should require companies to prioritize user privacy over their profit. But dating apps are taking shortcuts in safeguarding the privacy and security of users in favour of developing and deploying AI tools on their platforms, sometimes by using your most personal information to train their AI tools. Grindr has big plans for its gay wingman bot, Bumble

When Your Power Meter Becomes a Tool of Mass...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/21

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 have been running an illegal mass surveillance scheme for years, using our power meters as home-mounted spies. The Electronic Frontier

EFF to Court: The DMCA Didn't Create a New Right of...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/18

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 signature on a painting or attached to a photograph. Passed in 1998, the rule was supposed to help rightsholders identify potentially

California A.B. 412 Stalls Out—A Win for Innovation...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/18

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 regulate generative AI, not by looking at the public interest, but by mandating training data “reading lists” designed to pave the way for new copyright lawsuits, many of which are

Amazon Ring Cashes in on Techno-Authoritarianism and...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/18

Ring founder Jamie Siminoff is back at the helm of the surveillance doorbell company, and with him is the surveillance-first-privacy-last approach that made Ring one of the most maligned tech devices. Not only is the company reintroducing new versions of old features which would allow police to request footage directly from Ring users, it is also introducing a new feature that would allow police to request live-stream access to people’s home security devices. This is a bad, bad step for Ring and

We Support Wikimedia Foundation’s Challenge to UK’s...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/17

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and ARTICLE 19 strongly support the Wikimedia Foundation’s legal challenge to the categorization regulations of the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act. The Foundation – the non-profit that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects – announced its legal challenge earlier this year, arguing that the regulations endanger Wikipedia and the global community of volunteer contributors who create the information on the site. The High Court of Justice in London will

Radio Hobbyists, Rejoice! Good News for LoRa & Mesh

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/16

A set of radio devices and technologies are opening the doorway to new and revolutionary forms of communication. These have the potential to break down the over-reliance on traditional network hierarchies, and present collaborative alternatives where resistance to censorship, control and surveillance are baked into the network topography itself. Here, we look at a few of these technologies and what they might mean for the future of networked communications. The idea of what is broadly referred to as

EFF and 80 Organizations Call on EU Policymakers to...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/16

As the European Commission prepares an upcoming proposal for a Digital Networks Act (DNA), a growing network of groups are raising serious concerns about the resurgence of “fair share” proposals from major telecom operators. The original idea was to introduce network usage fees on certain companies to pay ISPs. We have said it before and we’ll say it again: there is nothing fair about this “fair share” proposal, which could undermine net neutrality and hurt consumers by changing how content is

🤕 A Surveillance Startup in Damage Control | EFFector...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/16

We're a little over halfway through the year! Which... could be good or bad depending on your outlook... but nevermind that—EFF is here to keep you updated on the latest digital rights news, and we've got you covered with an all-new EFFector! With issue 37.8, we're covering a recent EFF investigation into AI-generated police reports, a secret deal to sell flight passenger data to the feds (thanks data brokers), and why mass surveillance cannot be fixed with a software patch. Don't forget to also

Podcast Episode: Finding the Joy in Digital Security

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/16

Many people approach digital security training with furrowed brows, as an obstacle to overcome. But what if learning to keep your tech safe and secure was consistently playful and fun? People react better to learning, and retain more knowledge, when they're having a good time. It doesn’t mean the topic isn’t serious – it’s just about intentionally approaching a serious topic with joy.

Despite Supreme Court Setback, EFF Fights On Against...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/15

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton did not end the legal debate over age-verification mandates for websites. Instead, it’s a limited decision: the court’s legal reasoning only applies to age restrictions on sexual materials that minors do not have a legal right to access. Although the ruling reverses decades of First Amendment protections for adults to access lawful speech online, the decision does not allow states or the federal government to impose broader

EFF Tells Virginia Court That Constitutional Privacy...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/10

This post was co-authored by EFF legal intern Noam Shemtov. We are in a constant dialogue with Internet search engines, ranging from the mundane to the confessional. We ask search engines everything: What movies are playing (and which are worth seeing)? Where’s the nearest clinic (and how do I get there)? Who’s running in the sheriff’s race (and what are their views)? These online queries can give insight into our private details and innermost thoughts, but police increasingly access them without

No Face, No Case: California’s S.B. 627 Demands Cops...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/10

Across the country, people are collecting and sharing footage of masked law enforcement officers from both federal and local agencies deputized to do so-called immigration enforcement: arresting civilians, in some cases violently and/or warrantlessly. That footage is part of a long tradition of recording law enforcement during their operations to ensure some level of accountability if people observe misconduct and/or unconstitutional practices. However, as essential as recording police can be in

Axon’s Draft One Is Designed to Defy Transparency

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/10

Axon Enterprise’s Draft One — a generative artificial intelligence product that writes police reports based on audio from officers’ body-worn cameras — seems deliberately designed to avoid audits that could provide any accountability to the public, an EFF investigation has found. Our review of public records from police agencies already using the technology — including police reports, emails, procurement documents, department policies, software settings, and more — as well as Axon’s own user manuals

EFF's Guide to Getting Records About Axon's Draft One...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/10

The moment Axon Enterprise announced a new product, Draft One, that would allow law enforcement officers to use artificial intelligence to automatically generate incident report narratives based on body-worn camera audio, everyone in the police accountability community immediately started asking the same questions. What do AI-generated police reports look like? What kind of paper trail does this system leave? How do we get a hold of documentation using public records laws? Unfortunately, obtaining

It's EFF's 35th Anniversary (And We're Just Getting...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/10

Today we celebrate 35 years of EFF bearing the torch for digital rights against the darkness of the world, and I couldn’t be prouder. EFF was founded at a time when governments were hostile toward technology and clueless about how it would shape your life. While threats from state and commercial forces grew alongside the internet, so too did EFF’s expertise. Our mission has become even larger than pushing back on government ignorance and increasingly dangerous corporate power. In this moment, we're

Data Brokers are Selling Your Flight Information to...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/09

For many years, data brokers have existed in the shadows, exploiting gaps in privacy laws to harvest our information—all for their own profit. They sell our precise movements without our knowledge or meaningful consent to a variety of private and state actors, including law enforcement agencies. And they show no sign of stopping. This incentivizes other bad actors. If companies collect any kind of personal data and want to make a quick buck, there’s a data broker willing to buy it and sell it to the

Electronic Frontier Foundation to Present Annual EFF...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/09

2025 Awards Will Be Presented in a Live Ceremony Wednesday, Sept. 10 in San Francisco SAN FRANCISCO—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is honored to announce that Just Futures Law, Erie Meyer, and Software Freedom Law Center, India will receive the 2025 EFF Awards for their vital work in ensuring that technology supports privacy, freedom, justice, and innovation for all people. The EFF Awards recognize specific and substantial technical, social, economic, or cultural contributions in diverse

780 results