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Deeplinks

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

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Ryanair’s CFAA Claim Against Booking.com Has Nothing...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/29

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) is supposed to be about attacks on computer systems. It is not, as a federal district court suggested in Ryanair v. Booking.com, applicable when someone uses valid login credentials to access information to which those credentials provide access. Now that the case is on appeal, EFF has filed an amicus brief asking the Third Circuit to clarify that this case is about violations to policy, not hacking, and does not qualify as access “without authorization” under

You Went to a Drag Show—Now the State of Florida...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/28

If you thought going to a Pride event or drag show was just another night out, think again. If you were in Florida, it might land your name in a government database. That’s what’s happening in Vero Beach, FL, where the Florida Attorney General’s office has subpoenaed a local restaurant, The Kilted Mermaid, demanding surveillance video, guest lists, reservation logs, and contracts of performers and other staff—all because the venue hosted an LGBTQ+ Pride event. To be clear: no one has been charged

Just Banning Minors From Social Media Is Not...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/28

By publishing its guidelines under Article 28 of the Digital Services Act, the European Commission has taken a major step towards social media bans that will undermine privacy, expression, and participation rights for young people that are already enshrined in international human rights law. EFF recently submitted feedback to the Commission’s consultation on the guidelines, emphasizing a critical point: Online safety for young people must include privacy and security for them and must not come at

Zero Knowledge Proofs Alone Are Not a Digital ID...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/25

In the past few years, governments across the world have rolled out digital identification options, and now there are efforts encouraging online companies to implement identity and age verification requirements with digital ID in mind. This blog is the first in this short series that will explain digital ID and the pending use case of age verification. The following posts will evaluate what real protections we can implement with current digital ID frameworks and discuss how better privacy and

Canada’s Bill C-2 Opens the Floodgates to U.S....

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/25

The Canadian government is preparing to give away Canadians’ digital lives—to U.S. police, to the Donald Trump administration, and possibly to foreign spy agencies. Bill C-2, the so-called Strong Borders Act, is a sprawling surveillance bill with multiple privacy-invasive provisions. But the thrust is clear: it’s a roadmap to aligning Canadian surveillance with U.S. demands. It’s also a giveaway of Canadian constitutional rights in the name of “border security.” If passed, it will shatter privacy

You Shouldn’t Have to Make Your Social Media Public...

Deeplinks ·

2025/07/23

The Trump administration is continuing its dangerous push to surveil and suppress foreign students’ social media activity. The State Department recently announced an unprecedented new requirement that applicants for student and exchange visas must set all social media accounts to “public” for government review. The State Department also indicated that if applicants refuse to unlock their accounts or otherwise don’t maintain a social media presence, the government may interpret it as an attempt to

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

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