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Deeplinks

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

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Saving the Internet in Europe: Defending Privacy and...

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/19

This post is part three 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 European fight for digital

Crimson Memo: Analyzing the Privacy Impact of...

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/19

Early in January 2025 it seemed like TikTok was on the verge of being banned by the U.S. government. In reaction to this imminent ban, several million people in the United States signed up for a different China-based social network known in the U.S. as RedNote, and in China as Xianghongshu (小红书/ 小紅書; which translates to Little Red Book). RedNote is an application and social network created in 2013 that currently has over 300 million users. Feature-wise, it is most comparable to Instagram and is

Alaa Abd El Fattah's Mother, Laila Soueif, Calls on...

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/14

As calls by UK’s top leaders for the release of British-Egyptian blogger, coder, and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah from prison in Cairo continue, Alaa’s mother, math professor Laila Soueif, grows weaker four months into a hunger strike she began in September to keep attention focused on her son and protest the lack of progress in obtaining his release. She has consumed only water, coffee, tea and rehydration salts for more than 135 days. She is 68 years old, and her condition is becoming dire. It's

First Trump DOJ Assembled “Tiger Team” To Rewrite Key...

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/13

As President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order in 2020 to retaliate against online services that fact-checked him, a team within the Department of Justice (DOJ) was finalizing a proposal to substantially weaken a key law that protects internet users’ speech.Documents released to EFF as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit reveal that the DOJ officials—a self-described “Tiger Team”—were caught off guard by Trump’s retaliatory effort, which was aimed at the same online social

Google is on the Wrong Side of History

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/13

Google continues to show us why it chose to abandon its old motto of “Don’t Be Evil,” as it becomes more and more enmeshed with the military-industrial complex. Most recently, Google has removed four key points from its AI principles. Specifically, it previously read that the company would not pursue AI applications involving (1) weapons, (2) surveillance, (3) technologies that “cause or are likely to cause overall harm,” and (4) technologies whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of

Yes, You Have the Right to Film ICE

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/12

Across the United States, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has already begun increasing enforcement operations, including highly publicized raids. As immigrant communities, families, allies, and activists think about what can be done to shift policy and protect people, one thing is certain: similar to filming the police as they operate, you have the right to film ICE, as long as you are not obstructing official duties. Filming ICE agents making an arrest or amassing in your town helps

When Platforms and the Government Unite, Remember...

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/12

For years now, there has been some concern about the coziness between technology companies and the government. Whether a company complies with casual government requests for data, requires a warrant, or even fights overly-broad warrants has been a canary in the digital coal mine during an era where companies may know more about you than your best friends and families. For example, in 2022, law enforcement served a warrant to Facebook for the messages of a 17-year-old girl—messages that were later

EFF Sues OPM, DOGE and Musk for Endangering the...

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/11

Lawsuit Argues Defendants Violated the Privacy Act by Disclosing Sensitive Data NEW YORK—EFF and a coalition of privacy defenders led by Lex Lumina filed a lawsuit today asking a federal court to stop the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) from disclosing millions of Americans’ private, sensitive information to Elon Musk and his “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE).The complaint on behalf of two labor unions and individual current and former government workers across the country,

The TAKE IT DOWN Act: A Flawed Attempt to Protect...

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/11

Congress has begun debating the TAKE IT DOWN Act (S. 146), a bill that seeks to speed up the removal of a troubling type of online content: non-consensual intimate imagery, or NCII. In recent years, concerns have also grown about the use of digital tools to alter or create such images, sometimes called deepfakes. While protecting victims of these heinous privacy invasions is a legitimate goal, good intentions alone are not enough to make good policy. As currently drafted, the TAKE IT DOWN Act

EFF Sues DOGE and the Office of Personnel Management...

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/11

EFF and a coalition of privacy defenders have filed a lawsuit today asking a federal court to block Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing the private information of millions of Americans that is stored by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and to delete any data that has been collected or removed from databases thus far. The lawsuit also names OPM, and asks the court to block OPM from sharing further data with DOGE. The Plaintiffs who have stepped forward to

Building a Community Privacy Plan

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/11

Digital security training can feel overwhelming, and not everyone will have access to new apps, new devices, and new tools. There also isn't one single system of digital security training, and we can't know the security plans of everyone we communicate with—some people might have concerns about payment processors preventing them from obtaining fees for their online work, whilst others might be concerned about doxxing or safely communicating sensitive medical information. This is why good privacy

Privacy Loves Company

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/11

Most of the internet’s blessings—the opportunities for communities to connect despite physical borders and oppressive controls, the avenues to hold the powerful accountable without immediate censorship, the sharing of our hopes and frustrations with loved ones and strangers alike—tend to come at a price. Governments, corporations, and bad actors too often use our content for surveillance, exploitation, discrimination, and harm. It’s easy to dismiss these issues because you don’t think they concern

Why the So-Called AI Action Summit Falls Short

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/10

Ever since Chat-GPT’s debut, artificial intelligence (AI) has been the center of worldwide discussions on the promises and perils of new technologies. This has spawned a flurry of debates on the governance and regulation of large language models and “generative” AI, which have, among others, resulted in the Biden administration’s executive order on AI and international guiding principles for the development of generative AI and influenced Europe’s AI Act. As part of that global policy discussion,

The UK's Demands for Apple to Break Encryption Is an...

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/07

The Washington Post reported that the United Kingdom is demanding that Apple create an encryption backdoor to give the government access to end-to-end encrypted data in iCloud. Encryption is one of the best ways we have to reclaim our privacy and security in a digital world filled with cyberattacks and security breaches, and there’s no way to weaken it in order to only provide access to the “good guys.” We call on Apple to resist this attempt to undermine the right to private spaces and

EFF to Ninth Circuit: Young People Have a First...

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/07

Minors, like everyone else, have First Amendment rights. These rights extend to their ability to use social media both to speak and access the speech of others online. But these rights are under attack, as many states seek to limit minors’ use of social media through age verification measures and outright bans. California’s SB 976, or the Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act, prohibits minors from using a key feature of social media platforms—personalized recommendation systems, or

EFF Applauds Little Rock, AR for Cancelling...

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/06

Community members coordinated to pack Little Rock City Hall on Tuesday, where board members voted 5-3 to end the city's contract with ShotSpotter.Initially funded through a federal grant, Little Rock began its experiment with the “gunshot detection” sensors in 2018. ShotSpotter (now SoundThinking) has long been accused of steering federal grants toward local police departments in an effort to secure funding for the technology. Members of Congress are investigating this funding. EFF has long

Protecting Free Speech in Texas: We Need To Stop SB 336

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/06

The Texas legislature will soon be debating a bill that would seriously weaken the free speech protections of people in that state. If you live in Texas, it’s time to contact your state representatives and let them know you oppose this effort. Texas Senate Bill 336 (SB 336) is an attack on the Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA), the state’s landmark anti-SLAPP law, passed in 2011 with overwhelming bipartisan support. If passed, SB 336 (or its identical companion bill, H.B. 2459) will weaken

Closing the Gap in Encryption on Mobile

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/06

It’s time to expand encryption on Android and iPhone. With governments around the world engaging in constant attacks on user’s digital rights and access to the internet, removing glaring and potentially dangerous targets off of people’s backs when they use their mobile phones is more important than ever. So far we have seen strides for at least keeping messages private on mobile devices with end-to-end encrypted apps like Signal, WhatsApp, and iMessage. Encryption on the web has been widely

Paraguay’s Broadband Providers Continue to Struggle...

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/05

Paraguay’s five leading broadband service providers made some strides in making their privacy policies more accessible to the public, but continue to fall short in their commitments to transparency, due process in sharing metadata with authorities, and promoting human rights—all of which limits their user’s privacy rights, according to the new edition of TEDIC’s ¿Quién Defiende Tus Datos? (“Who Defends Your Data"). The report shows that, in general, providers operating as subsidiaries of foreign

Victory! EFF Helps Defeat Meritless Lawsuit Against...

Deeplinks ·

2025/02/05

Jack Poulson is a reporter, and when a confidential source sent him the police report of a tech CEO’s arrest for felony domestic violence, he did what journalists do: reported the news. The CEO, Maury Blackman, didn’t like that. So he sued Poulson—along with Amazon Web Service, Substack, and Poulson’s non-profit, Tech Inquiry—to try and force Poulson to take down his articles about the arrest. Blackman argued that a court order sealing the arrest allowed him to censor the internet—despite decades

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