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Deeplinks

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

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It's Copyright Week 2025: Join Us in the Fight for...

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/27

We're taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, and addressing what's at stake, and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation One of the unintended consequences of the internet is that more of us than ever are aware of how much of our lives is affected by copyright. People see

EFF to Michigan Supreme Court: Cell Phone Search...

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/25

Last week, EFF, along with the Criminal Defense Attorneys of Michigan, ACLU, and ACLU of Michigan, filed an amicus brief in People v. Carson in the Supreme Court of Michigan, challenging the constitutionality of the search warrant of Mr. Carson's smart phone.In this case, Mr. Carson was arrested for stealing money from his neighbor's safe with a co-conspirator. A few months later, law enforcement applied for a search warrant for Mr. Carson's cell phone. The search warrant enumerated the claims that

Face Scans to Estimate Our Age: Harmful and Creepy AF

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/23

Government must stop restricting website access with laws requiring age verification. Some advocates of these censorship schemes argue we can nerd our way out of the many harms they cause to speech, equity, privacy, and infosec. Their silver bullet? “Age estimation” technology that scans our faces, applies an algorithm, and guesses how old we are – before letting us access online content and opportunities to communicate with others. But when confronted with age estimation face scans, many people

Second Circuit Rejects Record Labels’ Attempt to...

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/23

In a major win for creator communities, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has once again handed video streaming site Vimeo a solid win in its long-running legal battle with Capitol Records and a host of other record labels. The labels claimed that Vimeo was liable for copyright infringement on its site, and specifically that it can’t rely on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s safe harbor because Vimeo employees “interacted” with user-uploaded videos that included infringing

Speaking Freely: Lina Attalah

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/23

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.* Jillian York: Welcome, let’s start here. What does free speech or free expression mean to you personally? Lina Attalah: Being able to think without too many calculations and without fear. York: What are the qualities that make you passionate about the work that you do, and also about telling stories and utilizing your free expression in that way? Well, it ties in with your first question. Free speech is basically being able to express oneself

The Impact of Age Verification Measures Goes Beyond...

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/23

As age verification bills pass across the world under the guise of “keeping children safe online,” governments are increasingly giving themselves the authority to decide what topics are deemed “safe” for young people to access, and forcing online services to remove and block anything that may be deemed “unsafe.” This growing legislative trend has sparked significant concerns and numerous First Amendment challenges, including a case currently pending before the Supreme Court–Free Speech Coalition v

Texas Is Enforcing Its State Data Privacy Law. So...

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/22

States need to have and use data privacy laws to bring privacy violations to light and hold companies accountable for them. So, we were glad to see that the Texas Attorney General’s Office has filed its first lawsuit under Texas Data Privacy and Security Act (TDPSA) to take the Allstate Corporation to task for sharing driver location and other driving data without telling customers. In its complaint, the attorney general’s office alleges that Allstate and a number of its subsidiaries (some of which

The FTC’s Ban on GM and OnStar Selling Driver Data Is...

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/22

The Federal Trade Commission announced a proposed settlement agreeing that General Motors and its subsidiary, OnStar, will be banned from selling geolocation and driver behavior data to credit agencies for five years. That’s good news for G.M. owners. Every car owner and driver deserves to be protected. Last year, a New York Times investigation highlighted how G.M. was sharing information with insurance companies without clear knowledge from the driver. This resulted in people’s insurance premiums

VICTORY! Federal Court (Finally) Rules Backdoor...

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/22

Better late than never: last night a federal district court held that backdoor searches of databases full of Americans’ private communications collected under Section 702 ordinarily require a warrant. The landmark ruling comes in a criminal case, United States v. Hasbajrami, after more than a decade of litigation, and over four years since the Second Circuit Court of Appeals found that backdoor searches constitute “separate Fourth Amendment events” and directed the district court to determine a

Protecting “Free Speech” Can’t Just Be About...

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/22

The White House executive order “restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship,” published Monday, misses the mark on truly protecting Americans’ First Amendment rights. The order calls for an investigation of efforts under the Biden administration to “moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech,” especially on social media companies. It goes on to order an Attorney General investigation of any government activities “over the last 4 years” that are inconsistent with the First

EFF Sends Transition Memo on Digital Policy...

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/21

Topics Include National Security Surveillance, Consumer Privacy, AI, Cybersecurity, and Many More SAN FRANCISCO—Standing up for technology users in 2025 and beyond requires careful thinking about government surveillance, consumer privacy, artificial intelligence, and encryption, among other topics. To help incoming federal policymakers think through these key issues, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has shared a transition memo with the Trump Administration and the 119th U.S. Congress. “We

VPNs Are Not a Solution to Age Verification Laws

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/17

VPNs are having a moment. On January 1st, Florida joined 18 other states in implementing an age verification law that burdens Floridians' access to sites that host adult content, including pornography websites like Pornhub. In protest to these laws, PornHub blocked access to users in Florida. Residents in the “Free State of Florida” have now lost access to the world's most popular adult entertainment website and 16th-most-visited site of any kind in the world. At the same time, Google Trends data

Mad at Meta? Don't Let Them Collect and Monetize Your...

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/17

If you’re fed up with Meta right now, you’re not alone. Google searches for deleting Facebook and Instagram spiked last week after Meta announced its latest policy changes. These changes, seemingly designed to appease the incoming Trump administration, included loosening Meta’s hate speech policy to allow for the targeting of LGBTQ+ people and immigrants. If these changes—or Meta’s long history of anti-competitive, censorial, and invasive practices—make you want to cut ties with the company, it’s

EFF Statement on U.S. Supreme Court's Decision to...

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/17

We are deeply disappointed that the Court failed to require the strict First Amendment scrutiny required in a case like this, which would’ve led to the inescapable conclusion that the government's desire to prevent potential future harm had to be rejected as infringing millions of Americans’ constitutionally protected free speech. We are disappointed to see the Court sweep past the undisputed content-based justification for the law – to control what speech Americans see and share with each other –

Systemic Risk Reporting: A System in Crisis?

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/16

The first batch of reports assessing the so called “systemic risks” posed by the largest online platforms are in. These reports are a result of the Digital Services Act (DSA), Europe’s new law regulating platforms like Google, Meta, Amazon or X, and have been eagerly awaited by civil society groups across the globe. In their reports, companies are supposed to assess whether their services contribute to a wide range of barely defined risks. These go beyond the dissemination of illegal content and

Digital Rights and the New Administration | EFFector...

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/15

It's a new year and EFF is here to help you keep up with your New Year's resolution to stay up-to-date on the latest digital rights news with our EFFector newsletter!This edition of the newsletter covers our tongue-in-cheek "awards" for some of the worst data breaches in 2024, The Breachies; an explanation of "real-time bidding," the most privacy-invasive surveillance system you may have never heard of; and our notes to Meta on how to empower freedom of expression on their platforms. You can read

Police Use of Face Recognition Continues to Wrack Up...

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/15

Police have shown, time and time again, that they cannot be trusted with face recognition technology (FRT). It is too dangerous, invasive, and in the hands of law enforcement, a perpetual liability. EFF has long argued that face recognition, whether it is fully accurate or not, is too dangerous for police use, and such use ought to be banned. Now, The Washington Post has proved one more reason for this ban: police claim to use FRT just as an investigatory lead, but in practice officers routinely

EFFecting Change: Digital Rights & the New...

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/15

Please join EFF for the next segment of EFFecting Change, our livestream series covering digital privacy and free speech. EFFecting Change Livestream Series:Digital Rights & the New AdministrationThursday, January 16th10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific - Check Local TimeThis event is LIVE and FREE! What direction will your digital rights take under Trump and the 119th Congress? Find out about the topics EFF is watching and the effect they might have on you. Join our panel of experts as they discuss

Platforms Systematically Removed a User Because He...

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/14

On December 14, James Harr, the owner of an online store called ComradeWorkwear, announced on social media that he planned to sell a deck of “Most Wanted CEO” playing cards, satirizing the infamous “Most-wanted Iraqi playing cards” introduced by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency in 2003. Per the ComradeWorkwear website, the Most Wanted CEO cards would offer “a critique of the capitalist machine that sacrifices people and planet for profit,” and “Unmask the oligarchs, CEOs, and profiteers who rule

Five Things to Know about the Supreme Court Case on...

Deeplinks ·

2025/01/13

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Wednesday in a case that will determine whether states can violate adults’ First Amendment rights to access sexual content online by requiring them to verify their age. The case, Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, could have far-reaching effects for every internet users’ free speech, anonymity, and privacy rights. The Supreme Court will decide whether a Texas law, HB1181, is constitutional. HB 1811 requires a huge swath of websites—many that would likely not

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