PODCAST

Deeplinks

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

All Episodes

A Surveillance Mandate Disguised As Child Safety: Why...

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/14

A new bill sponsored by Sen. Hawley (R-MO), Sen. Blumenthal (D-CT), Sen. Britt (R-AL), Sen. Warner (D-VA), and Sen. Murphy (D-CT) would require AI chatbots to verify all users’ ages, prohibit minors from using AI tools, and implement steep criminal penalties for chatbots that promote or solicit certain harms. That might sound reasonable at first, but behind those talking points lies a sprawling surveillance and censorship regime that would reshape how people of all ages use the internet. The GUARD

Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What...

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/13

Remember when you thought age verification laws couldn't get any worse? Well, lawmakers in Wisconsin, Michigan, and beyond are about to blow you away. It's unfortunately no longer enough to force websites to check your government-issued ID before you can access certain content, because politicians have now discovered that people are using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to protect their privacy and bypass these invasive laws. Their solution? Entirely ban the use of VPNs. Yes, really. As of this

🔔 Ring's Face Scan Plan | EFFector 37.16

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/13

Cozy up next to the fireplace and we'll catch you up on the latest digital rights news with EFF's EFFector newsletter. In our latest issue, we’re exposing surveillance logs that reveal racist policing; explaining the harms of Google’s plan for Android app gatekeeping; and continuing our new series, Gate Crashing, exploring how the internet empowers people to take nontraditional paths into the traditional worlds of journalism, creativity, and criticism. Prefer to listen in? Check out our audio

Washington Court Rules That Data Captured on Flock...

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/12

A Washington state trial court has shot down local municipalities’ effort to keep automated license plate reader (ALPR) data secret. The Skagit County Superior Court in Washington rejected the attempt to block the public’s right to access data gathered by Flock Safety cameras, protecting access to information under the Washington Public Records Act (PRA). Importantly, the ruling from the court makes it clear that this access is protected even when a Washington city uses Flock Safety, a third-party

EFFecting Change: This Title Was Written by a Human

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/12

Generative AI is like a Rorschach test for anxieties about technology–be they privacy, replacement of workers, bias and discrimination, surveillance, or intellectual property. Our panelists discuss how to address complex questions and risks in AI while protecting civil liberties and human rights online. Join EFF Director of Policy and Advocacy Katharine Trendacosta, EFF Staff Attorney Tori Noble, Berkeley Center for Law & Technology Co-Director Pam Samuelson, and Icarus Salon Artist Şerife

EFF Teams Up With AV Comparatives to Test Android...

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/06

EFF has, for many years, raised the alarm about the proliferation of stalkerware—commercially-available apps designed to be installed covertly on another person’s device and exfiltrate data from that device without their knowledge. In particular, we have urged the makers of anti-virus products for Android phones to improve their detection of stalkerware and call it out explicitly to users when it is found. In 2020 and 2021, AV Comparatives ran tests to see how well the most popular anti-virus

The Legal Case Against Ring’s Face Recognition Feature

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/03

Amazon Ring’s upcoming face recognition tool has the potential to violate the privacy rights of millions of people and could result in Amazon breaking state biometric privacy laws. Ring plans to introduce a feature to its home surveillance cameras called “Familiar Faces,” to identify specific people who come into view of the camera. When turned on, the feature will scan the faces of all people who approach the camera to try and find a match with a list of pre-saved faces. This will include many

License Plate Surveillance Logs Reveal Racist...

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/03

More than 80 law enforcement agencies across the United States have used language perpetuating harmful stereotypes against Romani people when searching the nationwide Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) network, according to audit logs obtained and analyzed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. When police run a search through the Flock Safety network, which links thousands of ALPR systems, they are prompted to leave a reason and/or case number for the search. Between June 2024 and

Application Gatekeeping: An Ever-Expanding Pathway to...

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/03

It’s not news that Apple and Google use their app stores to shape what apps you can and cannot have on many of your devices. What is new is more governments—including the U.S. government—using legal and extralegal tools to lean on these gatekeepers in order to assert that same control. And rather than resisting, the gatekeepers are making it easier than ever. Apple’s decision to take down the ICEBlock app at least partially in response to threats from the U.S. government—with Google rapidly and

EFF Stands With Tunisian Media Collective Nawaat

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/03

When the independent Tunisian online media collective Nawaat announced that the government had suspended its activities for one month, the news landed like a punch in the gut for anyone who remembers what the Arab uprisings promised: dignity, democracy, and a free press. But Tunisia’s October 31 suspension of Nawaat—delivered quietly, without formal notice, and justified under Decree-Law 2011-88—is not just a bureaucratic decision. It’s a warning shot aimed at the very idea of independent civic

What EFF Needs in a New Executive Director

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/03

By Gigi Sohn, Chair, EFF Board of Directors With the impending departure of longtime, renowned, and beloved Executive Director Cindy Cohn, EFF and leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates have developed a profile for her successor. While Cindy is irreplaceable, we hope that everyone who knows and loves EFF will help us find our next leader. First and foremost, we are looking for someone who’ll meet this pivotal moment in EFF’s history. As authoritarian surveillance creeps around the

Once Again, Chat Control Flails After Strong Public...

Deeplinks ·

2025/10/31

The European Union Council pushed for a dangerous plan to scan encrypted messages, and once again, people around the world loudly called out the risks, leading to the current Danish presidency to withdraw the plan. EFF has strongly opposed Chat Control since it was first introduced in 2022. The zombie proposal comes back time and time again, and time and time again, it’s been shot down because there’s no public support. The fight is delayed, but not over. It’s time for lawmakers to stop attempting

Opt Out October: Daily Tips to Protect Your Privacy...

Deeplinks ·

2025/10/31

Trying to take control of your online privacy can feel like a full-time job. But if you break it up into small tasks and take on one project at a time it makes the process of protecting your privacy much easier. This month we’re going to do just that. For the month of October, we’ll update this post with new tips every weekday that show various ways you can opt yourself out of the ways tech giants surveil you. Online privacy isn’t dead. But the tech giants make it a pain in the butt to achieve. With

The Department of Defense Wants Less Proof its...

Deeplinks ·

2025/10/31

When Congress eventually reopens, the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will be moving toward a vote. This gives us a chance to see the priorities of the Secretary of Defense and his Congressional allies when it comes to the military—and one of those priorities is buying technology, especially AI, with less of an obligation to prove it’s effective and worth the money the government will be paying for it. As reported by Lawfare, “This year’s defense policy bill—the National Defense

Age Verification, Estimation, Assurance, Oh My! A...

Deeplinks ·

2025/10/30

If you've been following the wave of age-gating laws sweeping across the country and the globe, you've probably noticed that lawmakers, tech companies, and advocates all seem to be using different terms for what sounds like the same thing. Age verification, age assurance, age estimation, age gating—they get thrown around interchangeably, but they technically mean different things. And those differences matter a lot when we're talking about your rights, your privacy, your data, and who gets to access

❤️ Let's Sue the Government! | EFFector 37.15

Deeplinks ·

2025/10/29

There are no tricks in EFF's EFFector newsletter, just treats to keep you up-to-date on the latest in the fight for digital privacy and free expression. In our latest issue, we're explaining a new lawsuit to stop the U.S. government's viewpoint-based surveillance of online speech; sharing even more tips to protect your privacy; and celebrating a victory for transparency around AI police reports. Prefer to listen in? Check out our audio companion, where EFF Staff Attorney Lisa Femia explains why EFF

Joint Statement on the UN Cybercrime Convention: EFF...

Deeplinks ·

2025/10/27

Today, EFF joined a coalition of civil society organizations in urging UN Member States not to sign the UN Convention Against Cybercrime. For those that move forward despite these warnings, we urge them to take immediate and concrete steps to limit the human rights harms this Convention will unleash. These harms are likely to be severe and will be extremely difficult to prevent in practice. The Convention obligates states to establish broad electronic surveillance powers to investigate and cooperate

Science Must Decentralize

Deeplinks ·

2025/10/24

Knowledge production doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Every great scientific breakthrough is built on prior work, and an ongoing exchange with peers in the field. That’s why we need to address the threat of major publishers and platforms having an improper influence on how scientific knowledge is accessed—or outright suppressed. In the digital age, the collaborative and often community-governed effort of scholarly research has gone global and unlocked unprecedented potential to improve our understanding

When AI and Secure Chat Meet, Users Deserve Strong...

Deeplinks ·

2025/10/23

Both Google and Apple are cramming new AI features into their phones and other devices, and neither company has offered clear ways to control which apps those AI systems can access. Recent issues around WhatsApp on both Android and iPhone demonstrate how these interactions can go sideways, risking revealing chat conversations beyond what you intend. Users deserve better controls and clearer documentation around what these AI features can access. After diving into how Google Gemini and Apple

Civil Disobedience of Copyright Keeps Science Going

Deeplinks ·

2025/10/23

Creating and sharing knowledge are defining traits of humankind, yet copyright law has grown so restrictive that it can require acts of civil disobedience to ensure that students and scholars have the books they need and to preserve swaths of culture from being lost forever. Reputable research generally follows a familiar pattern: Scientific articles are written by scholars based on their research—often with public funding. Those articles are then peer-reviewed by other scholars in their fields and

780 results