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Deeplinks

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

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Age Verification Is Coming For the Internet. We Built...

Deeplinks ·

2025/12/10

Age verification laws are proliferating fast across the United States and around the world, creating a dangerous and confusing tangle of rules about what we’re all allowed to see and do online. Though these mandates claim to protect children, in practice they create harmful censorship and surveillance regimes that put everyone—adults and young people alike—at risk.The term “age verification” is colloquially used to describe a wide range of age assurance technologies, from age verification systems

The Best Big Media Merger Is No Merger at All

Deeplinks ·

2025/12/10

The state of streaming is... bad. It’s very bad. The first step in wanting to watch anything is a web search: “Where can I stream X?” Then you have to scroll past an AI summary with no answers, and then scroll past the sponsored links. After that, you find out that the thing you want to watch was made by a studio that doesn’t exist anymore or doesn’t have a streaming service. So, even though you subscribe to more streaming services than you could actually name, you will have to buy a digital copy to

EFF Launches Age Verification Hub as Resource Against...

Deeplinks ·

2025/12/10

EFF Also Will Host a Reddit AMA and a Livestreamed Panel DiscussionSAN FRANCISCO—With ill-advised and dangerous age verification laws proliferating across the United States and around the world, creating surveillance and censorship regimes that will be used to harm both youth and adults, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has launched a new resource hub that will sort through the mess and help people fight back. To mark the hub's launch, EFF will host a Reddit AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) next week and

10 (Not So) Hidden Dangers of Age Verification

Deeplinks ·

2025/12/08

It’s nearly the end of 2025, and half of the US and the UK now require you to upload your ID or scan your face to watch “sexual content.” A handful of states and Australia now have various requirements to verify your age before you can create a social media account. Age-verification laws may sound straightforward to some: protect young people online by making everyone prove their age. But in reality, these mandates force users into one of two flawed systems—mandatory ID checks or biometric scans—and

EU's New Digital Package Proposal Promises Red Tape...

Deeplinks ·

2025/12/04

The European Commission (EC) is considering a “Digital Omnibus” package that would substantially rewrite EU privacy law, particularly the landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It’s not a done deal, and it shouldn’t be.The GDPR is the most comprehensive model for privacy legislation around the world. While it is far from perfect and suffers from uneven enforcement, complexities and certain administrative burdens, the omnibus package is full of bad and confusing ideas that, on balance,

Axon Tests Face Recognition on Body-Worn Cameras

Deeplinks ·

2025/12/04

Axon Enterprise Inc. is working with a Canadian police department to test the addition of face recognition technology (FRT) to its body-worn cameras (BWCs). This is an alarming development in government surveillance that should put communities everywhere on alert. As many as 50 officers from the Edmonton Police Department (EPD) will begin using these FRT-enabled BWCs today as part of a proof-of-concept experiment. EPD is the first police department in the world to use these Axon devices, according

After Years of Controversy, the EU’s Chat Control...

Deeplinks ·

2025/12/03

After a years-long battle, the European Commission’s “Chat Control” plan, which would mandate mass scanning and other encryption-breaking measures, at last codifies agreement on a position within the Council of the EU, representing EU States. The good news is that the most controversial part, the forced requirement to scan encrypted messages, is out. The bad news is there’s more to it than that. Chat Control has gone through several iterations since it was first introduced, with the EU Parliament

EFF Tells Patent Office: Don’t Cut the Public Out of...

Deeplinks ·

2025/12/02

EFF has submitted its formal comment to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) opposing a set of proposed rules that would sharply restrict the public’s ability to challenge wrongly granted patents. These rules would make inter partes review (IPR)—the main tool Congress created to fix improperly granted patents—unavailable in most of the situations where it’s needed most.If adopted, they would give patent trolls exactly what they want: a way to keep questionable patents alive and out of

AI Chatbot Companies Should Protect Your...

Deeplinks ·

2025/12/02

EFF intern Alexandra Halbeck contributed to this blog When people talk to a chatbot, they often reveal highly personal information they wouldn’t share with anyone else. Chat logs are digital repositories of our most sensitive and revealing information. They are also tempting targets for law enforcement, to which the U.S. Constitution gives only one answer: get a warrant. AI companies have a responsibility to their users to make sure the warrant requirement is strictly followed, to resist unlawful

How to Identify Automated License Plate Readers at...

Deeplinks ·

2025/12/02

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and scores of state and local law enforcement agencies have installed a massive dragnet of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) in the US-Mexico borderlands. In many cases, the agencies have gone out of their way to disguise the cameras from public view. And the problem is only going to get worse: as recently as July 2025, CBP put out a solicitation to purchase 100 more covert trail cameras with license

We’re Doubling Down on Digital Rights. You Can, Too.

Deeplinks ·

2025/12/02

Technology can uplift democracy, or it can be an authoritarian weapon. EFF is making sure it stays on the side of freedom. We’re defending encryption, exposing abusive surveillance tech, fighting government overreach, and standing up for free expression. But we need your help to protect digital rights—and right now, your donation will be matched dollar-for-dollar. Power up! Join EFF Today & Get a Free Donation Match It’s Power Up Your Donation Week and all online contributions get an automatic

The UK Has It Wrong on Digital ID. Here’s Why.

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/28

In late September, the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his government’s plans to introduce a new digital ID scheme in the country to take effect before the end of the Parliament (no later than August 2029). The scheme will, according to the Prime Minister, “cut the faff” in proving people’s identities by creating a virtual ID on personal devices with information like people’s name, date of birth, nationality or residency status, and photo to verify their right to live and work

EFF’s Holiday Gift Guide

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/28

Technology is supercharging the attack on democracy and EFF is fighting back. We’re suing to stop government surveillance. We're fighting to protect free expression online. And we're building tools to protect your data privacy.Help support our mission with new gear from EFF's online store, perfect gifts for the digital rights defender in your life. Take 20% your order today with code BLACKFRI. Thanks for being an EFF supporter! Liquid Core Dice are perfect for tabletop games. The metal clear-view

EFF to Arizona Federal Court: Protect Public School...

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/26

Legal Intern Alexandra Rhodes contributed to this blog post. EFF filed an amicus brief urging the Arizona District Court to protect public school students’ freedom of speech and privacy by holding that the use of a school-issued laptop or email account does not categorically mean a student is “on campus.” We argued that students need private digital spaces beyond their school’s reach to speak freely, without the specter of constant school surveillance and punishment. Surveillance Software Exposed

✋ Get A Warrant | EFFector 37.17

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/26

Even with the holidays coming up, the digital rights news doesn't stop. Thankfully, EFF is here to keep you up-to-date with our EFFector newsletter! In our latest issue, we’re explaining why politicians latest attempts to ban VPNs is a terrible idea; asking supporters to file public comments opposing new rules that would make bad patents untouchable; and sharing a privacy victory—Sacramento is forced to end its dragnet surveillance program of power meter data. Prefer to listen in? Check out our

Rights Organizations Demand Halt to Mobile Fortify,...

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/26

Mobile Fortify, the new app used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to use face recognition technology (FRT) to identify people during street encounters, is an affront to the rights and dignity of migrants and U.S. citizens alike. That's why a coalition of privacy, civil liberties and civil rights organizations are demanding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shut down the use of Mobile Fortify, release the agency's privacy analyses of the app, and clarify the agency's policy on

Privacy is For the Children (Too)

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/26

In the past few years, governments across the world have rolled out different 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 third in a short series that explains digital ID and the pending use case of age verification. Here, we cover alternative frameworks on age controls, updates on parental controls, and the importance of digital privacy in an increasingly

Speaking Freely: Laura Vidal

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/25

Interviewer: Jillian York Laura Vidal is a Venezuelan researcher and writer focused on digital rights, community resilience, and the informal ways people learn and resist under authoritarian pressure. She holds a Doctorate in Education Sciences and intercultural communication, and her work explores how narratives, digital platforms, and transnational communities shape strategies of care, resistance, and belonging, particularly in Latin America and within the Venezuelan diaspora. She has investigated

Celebrating Books on Building a Better Future

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/21

One of our favorite—and most important—things that we do at EFF is to work toward a better future. It can be easy to get caught up in all the crazy things that are happening in the moment, especially with the fires that need to be put out. But it’s just as important to keep our eyes on new technologies, how they are impacting digital rights, and how we can ensure that our rights and freedoms expand over time. That's why EFF is excited to spotlight two free book events this December that look ahead,

Victory! Court Ends Dragnet Electricity Surveillance...

Deeplinks ·

2025/11/21

A California judge ordered the end of a dragnet law enforcement program that surveilled the electrical smart meter data of thousands of Sacramento residents. The Sacramento County Superior Court ruled that the surveillance program run by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and police violated a state privacy statute, which bars the disclosure of residents’ electrical usage data with narrow exceptions. For more than a decade, SMUD coordinated with the Sacramento Police Department and

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