Privacy & Governance

As Federal Court Rules ALPRs are Mass Surveillance, EFF Gets Disappointing Ruling

In an extremely disappointing ruling, a California trial court dismissed SIREN v. San Jose, our case challenging the city of San J…

Healthcare Sees No Relief from Cyberattacks Disrupting Patient Care

Healthcare Cyberattacks Hit Harder, Cost More

Privacy's Defenders Podcast: No Privacy Without Encryption

When we communicate online today – from your personal emails and DMs to secure international commerce – we usually do so with encr…

FBI Arrests Suspect in FBI-Hacking Case

In September, hackers from a group called ShinyHunters announced that they stole a trove of FBI data about its own agents. It was…

Resisting the Menace of Federal Data Consolidation

In the past two years, the federal government has unlawfully consolidated data exposing our private information.  This consolidati…

Friday Squid Blogging: I Caught a Squid

On Wednesday I spent a day fishing, on a small boat out of Gloucester, MA. We caught many cod (none of which we could keep), and a…

Organizing in the Town at Oakland Tech Week

EFF was thrilled to join organizers, advocates, and activists in the East Bay for the second annual Oakland Tech Week last week. W…

Turkish Crackdown On LGBTQ+ Organizations Threatens Freedom of Expression and Association

EFF strongly condemns Turkey’s state-led discriminatory, oppressive attacks on feminist and LGBTQ+ organisations, media platforms,…

When No ID Means No Internet: Age Verification and the Right to Access Information

This post was co-authored by Sheila B. Lalwani, a doctorate student and recent COMPASS Fellow hosted by EFF. Age verification prop…

It's DAF Day! Wait...What's a DAF?

Today is DAF Day! This event highlights the millions of donor-advised funds (DAFs) people have set up to make charitable donations…

How Technology Empowers—and Imperils—Dictators

This essay was written with Seva Gunitsky, and originally appeared in Foreign Affairs. Two weeks after Moscow’s full-scale invasio…

Apple’s Verified Photography System

Apple just released a system called “Reference Image.” It can verify the image is exactly as taken by an iPhone—new models only—wi…

Possible Vulnerability in Apple’s Automatic Reboot

404Media is reporting (alternate link) that a cyber-weapons arms manufacturer is exploiting a vulnerability in iOS to bypass its a…

Another Historic Cipher Falls to AI

This one is from 1809, written by Napoleon’s nephew.

Friday Squid Blogging: EU is Trying to Fight Unregulated Squid Fishing

The EU is recommending import controls to combat unregulated squid fishing in the Southwest Atlantic. I’m not optimistic. As usual…

Site-Blocking Will Not Defend IP, No Matter the Bill’s Name

There has been a raft of site-blocking bills in the latest Congress, and the latest is called the “Deterring Extraterritorial Fore…

Congress Has Another Site-Blocking Bill, And This One Targets VPNs

Congress is taking another run at site-blocking, a deeply flawed concept that would undermine basic internet infrastructure. Rep.…

Victory! Court Rejects Government Effort to Dismiss Social Media Surveillance Lawsuit

Judge Allows Social Media Surveillance Lawsuit Against Trump Administration to Move Forward NEW YORK — A lawsuit filed by three…

Unidentified Flock Cameras in Florida

St. Lucie County in Florida discovered (alt link) a dozen Flock cameras whose ownership it can’t identify, and that the county gov…

Ola Bini Ordered to Leave Ecuador Under Obscure Accusations

In a new blow to Ola Bini’s legal guarantees, Ecuadorean authorities retained the free software developer and security expert yest…

How American Political Campaigns Are Using AI—and What They’re Spending on the Tools

This essay was written with Nathan E. Sanders, and originally appeared in The Guardian. New campaign finance disclosure data shine…

We Demand More Information on How Marin Cops Illegally Shared Flock ALPR Data

The Marin County Sheriff’s Office is the latest California law enforcement agency to get caught sharing automated license plate re…

Challengers Approach: Third Party App Stores Arrive to Google Play

If you are an Android user, you may have noticed it already: Google has begun allowing rival, third-party app stores to be distrib…

Court Agrees with EFF: Utah’s VPN Law Demands a Technical Impossibility

When state lawmakers attempt to rewrite how the internet works, users rely on courts to recognize that laws can’t make technical i…

Happy Opt Out October! Let’s Find Real Alternatives to the Tech Giants

Over the years, the major tech companies have found all sorts of ways to embed themselves into our lives. We often use their softw…

Connected Cars Are a Surveillance Platform

Researchers at Northeastern University, in collaboration with Consumer Reports, evaluated how much modern cars spy in their driver…

Victory! California Appeals Court Refuses to Revive Surveillance Tech CEO’s Meritless Lawsuit Against Journalist

When the rich and powerful try to use the court to silence negative reporting about themselves, it’s worth calling out that behavi…

📱 Hey Siri, How Do I Limit AI Data Access? | EFFector 38.17

With the launch of iOS 27, Apple is rolling out a variety of new AI features to its familiar voice assistant, Siri. But how are AI…

Proofpoint on Why AI Security Must Focus on Intent