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Deeplinks

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

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Cybersecurity Community Must Not Remain Silent On...

Deeplinks ·

2025/04/11

Cybersecurity professionals and the infosec community have essential roles to play in protecting our democracy, securing our elections, and building, testing, and safeguarding government infrastructure. It is critically important for us to speak up to ensure that essential work continues and that those engaged in these good faith efforts are not maligned by an administration that has tried to make examples of its enemies in many other fields. President Trump has targeted the former Director of the

Certbot 4.0: Long Live Short-Lived Certs!

Deeplinks ·

2025/04/10

When Let’s Encrypt, a free certificate authority, started issuing 90 day TLS certificates for websites, it was considered a bold move that helped push the ecosystem towards shorter certificate life times. Beforehand, certificate authorities normally issued certificate lifetimes lasting a year or more. With 4.0, Certbot is now supporting Let’s Encrypt’s new capability for six day certificates through ACME profiles and dynamic renewal at: 1/3rd of lifetime left 1/2 of lifetime left, if the lifetime

Congress Takes Another Step Toward Enabling Broad...

Deeplinks ·

2025/04/10

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday advanced the TAKE IT DOWN Act (S. 146) , a bill that seeks to speed up the removal of certain kinds of troubling online content. While the bill is meant to address a serious problem—the distribution of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII)—the notice-and-takedown system it creates is an open invitation for powerful people to pressure websites into removing content they dislike. As we’ve written before, while protecting victims of these heinous

Our Privacy Act Lawsuit Against DOGE and OPM: Why a...

Deeplinks ·

2025/04/08

Last week, a federal judge rejected the government’s motion to dismiss our Privacy Act lawsuit against the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). OPM is disclosing to DOGE agents the highly sensitive personal information of tens of millions of federal employees, retirees, and job applicants. This disclosure violates the federal Privacy Act, a watershed law that tightly limits how the federal government can use our personal

EFF, Civil Society Groups, Academics Call on UK Home...

Deeplinks ·

2025/04/08

Last week, EFF joined 30 civil society groups and academics in warning UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Department for Science, Innovation & Technology Secretary Peter Kyle about the law enforcement risks contained within the draft Data Use and Access Bill (DUA Bill).Clause 80 of the DUA Bill weakens the safeguards for solely automated decisions in the law-enforcement context and dilutes crucial data protection safeguards. Under sections 49 and 50 of the Data Protection Act 2018, solely

Judge Rejects Government’s Attempt to Dismiss EFF...

Deeplinks ·

2025/04/03

Court Confirms That, If Proven, DOGE’s Ongoing Access to Personnel Records Is Illegal NEW YORK—A lawsuit seeking to stop the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) from disclosing tens of millions of Americans’ private, sensitive information to Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) can continue, a federal judge ruled Thursday. Judge Denise L. Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York partially rejected the defendants’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit,

EFF Joins Amicus Brief Supporting Perkins Coie Law...

Deeplinks ·

2025/04/03

EFF has joined the American Civil Liberties Union and other legal advocacy organizations across the ideological spectrum in filing an amicus brief asking a federal judge to strike down President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting law firm Perkins Coie for its past work on voting rights lawsuits and its representation of the President’s prior political opponents. As a legal organization that has fought in court to defend the rights of technology users for almost 35 years, including numerous

Calyx Institute: A Case Study in Grassroots Innovation

Deeplinks ·

2025/04/03

Technologists play a huge role in building alternative tools and resources when our right to privacy and security are undermined by governments and major corporations. This direct resistance ensures that even in the face of powerful adversaries, communities can find some safety and autonomy through community-built tools.One of the most renowned names in this work is the Calyx Institute, a New York based 501(c)3 nonprofit founded by Nicholas Merrill, after a successful and influential constitutional

Site-Blocking Legislation Is Back. It’s Still a...

Deeplinks ·

2025/04/02

More than a decade ago, Congress tried to pass SOPA and PIPA—two sweeping bills that would have allowed the government and copyright holders to quickly shut down entire websites based on allegations of piracy. The backlash was immediate and massive. Internet users, free speech advocates, and tech companies flooded lawmakers with protests, culminating in an “Internet Blackout” on January 18, 2012. Turns out, Americans don’t like government-run internet blacklists. The bills were ultimately

Vote for “How to Fix the Internet” in the Webby...

Deeplinks ·

2025/04/01

EFF’s “How to Fix the Internet” podcast is a nominee in the Webby Awards 29th Annual People's Voice competition – and we need your support to bring the trophy home!Vote now! We keep hearing all these dystopian stories about technology’s impact on our lives and our futures — from tracking-based surveillance capitalism to the dominance of a few large platforms choking innovation to the growing pressure by authoritarian governments to control what we see and say. The landscape can feel bleak. Exposing

EFF Urges Third Circuit to Join the Legal Chorus: No...

Deeplinks ·

2025/03/31

Two appeals courts have recently rejected efforts by private parties to use copyright to restrict access to the laws that most directly affect ordinary citizens: regulations that ensure our homes, workplaces, devices, and many other products, are safe and fit for purpose. Apparently hoping the third time will be the charm, a standards organization is asking the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to break ranks and hold that a private party that helps develop a law also gets to own that law. In an amicus

Announcing EFF’s New Exhibit on Border Surveillance...

Deeplinks ·

2025/03/31

EFF has created a traveling exhibit, “Border Surveillance: Places, People, and Technology,” which will make its debut at the Angel Island Immigration Station historical site this spring. The exhibition on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay will run from April 2, 2025 through May 28, 2025. We would especially like to thank the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation and Angel Island State Park for their collaboration. You can learn more about the exhibit’s hours of operation and how to visit it

Congress Must Reject Transparent Efforts to Undermine...

Deeplinks ·

2025/03/28

Earlier this week, the House Judiciary Committee passed H.R. 1526, a bill by Rep. Darrell Issa to prevent courts from issuing nationwide injunctions. This bill could receive a vote on the House floor as early as next week. Senator Josh Hawley recently introduced a similar bill in the Senate. Both bills would prohibit district courts from handing down injunctive relief orders that apply to parties that are not involved in the case. EFF opposes both bills. We see this legislation for what it is: a

Online Tracking is Out of Control—Privacy Badger Can...

Deeplinks ·

2025/03/27

Every time you browse the web, you're being tracked. Most websites contain invisible tracking code that allows companies to collect and monetize data about your online activity. Many of those companies are data brokers, who sell your sensitive information to anyone willing to pay. That’s why EFF created Privacy Badger, a free, open-source browser extension used by millions to fight corporate surveillance and take back control of their data. Since we first released Privacy Badger in 2014, online

A New Tool to Detect Cellular Spying | EFFector 37.3

Deeplinks ·

2025/03/26

Take some time during your Spring Break to catch up on the latest digital rights news by subscribing to EFF's EFFector newsletter!This edition of the newsletter covers our new open source tool to detect cellular spying, Rayhunter; The Foilies 2025, our tongue-in-cheek awards to the worst responses to public records requests; and our recommendations to the NSF for the new AI Action Plan to put people first. You can read the full newsletter here, and even get future editions directly to your

How to Delete Your 23andMe Data

Deeplinks ·

2025/03/26

This week, the genetic testing company 23andMe filed for bankruptcy, which means the genetic data the company collected on millions of users is now up for sale. If you do not want your data included in any potential sale, it’s a good time to ask the company to delete it. When the company first announced it was considering a sale, we highlighted many of the potential issues, including selling that data to companies with poor security practices or direct links to law enforcement. With this

Saving the Internet in Europe: Fostering Choice,...

Deeplinks ·

2025/03/25

This post is part four and the final part in a series of posts about EFF’s work in Europe. Read about how and why we work in Europe here. EFF’s mission is to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people of the world. While our work has taken us to far corners of the globe, in recent years we have worked to expand our efforts in Europe, building up a policy team with key expertise in the region, and bringing our experience in advocacy and technology to the

230 Protects Users, Not Big Tech

Deeplinks ·

2025/03/24

Once again, several Senators appear poised to gut one of the most important laws protecting internet users - Section 230 (47 U.S.C. § 230). Don’t be fooled - many of Section 230’s detractors claim that this critical law only protects big tech. The reality is that Section 230 provides limited protection for all platforms, though the biggest beneficiaries are small platforms and users. Why else would some of the biggest platforms be willing to endorse a bill that guts the law? In fact, repealing

Podcast Episode Rerelease: Dr. Seuss Warned Us

Deeplinks ·

2025/03/23

This episode was first released on May 2, 2023.We’re excited to announce that we’re working on a new season of How to Fix the Internet, coming in the next few months! But today we want to lift up an earlier episode that has particular significance right now. In 2023, we spoke with our friend Alvaro Bedoya, who was appointed as a Commissioner for the Federal Trade Commission in 2022. In our conversation, we talked about his work there, about why we need to be wary of workplace surveillance, and why

A Win for Encryption: France Rejects Backdoor Mandate

Deeplinks ·

2025/03/21

In a moment of clarity after initially moving forward a deeply flawed piece of legislation, the French National Assembly has done the right thing: it rejected a dangerous proposal that would have gutted end-to-end encryption in the name of fighting drug trafficking. Despite heavy pressure from the Interior Ministry, lawmakers voted Thursday night (article in French) to strike down a provision that would have forced messaging platforms like Signal and WhatsApp to allow hidden access to private

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