Australia has passed a law requiring major tech platforms such as Google and Meta to strike deals with Australian news publishers or pay a levy on their advertising revenue.
EFF, Access Now, and Data Privacy Brasil are putting forward recommendations to strengthen robust privacy and data protection safeguards in the context of Brazil's elections. The recommendations stress the close relationship between violations of personal data protection and challenges to the integrâŚ
Meta has settled â pending approval â a case about the additcive features of its social media app that was first filed by 51 US States in 2023, for $18-billion. Now it is calling on TikTok and YouTube to also comply.
agrupados por: meta ¡ settlement ¡ 18bn ¡ social ¡ tiktok ¡ youtube
Earlier this month, Franceâs top court struck down the countryâs legislation that banned social media use for people under 15 years old, which had been scheduled to take effect in January 2027. This is a welcome win for free expression, as we face a wave of countries and U.S. states seeking to passâŚ
Automated license plate readers (ALPRs) build a searchable map of everywhere a driver goes, fed into databases that police, ICE, and private vendors can query after the fact. Networked across a city, ALPRs are purpose-built to track everyone regardless of suspicion. ALPRs are not a surveillance toolâŚ
Age verification (laws and regulations requiring platforms and websites to assure or estimate that a user seeking to use an online service is of a certain age) is everywhere. At the time of writing, about half the states in the US have some internet age verification law in place, and dangerous propoâŚ
A federal appeals court just made it harder for online services, big and small, to get lawsuits over user speech dismissed early. In California v. Meta, a Ninth Circuit three-judge panel held that the lower courtâs denial of Section 230 immunity to Meta is not immediately appealable. The misguided râŚ
Your location isn't just a pin on a mapâit can expose some of the most intimate details about your life. The value of this information to advertisers and others has turned the location data business into a multi-billion dollar industry. In our latest EFFector newsletter, we're covering a new EFF repâŚ
In a handful of known cases, large social media companies have privately pushed back against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) subpoenas when the agency tried to unmask anonymous users who tracked immigration activities or criticized the government. As ICE engages in a pattern of illegal andâŚ
Brazil's new internet intermediary liability regime is underway. The implementation of changes established by the Supreme Court includes notice and takedown mechanisms and duty of care obligations. Caution is crucial as these measures can create problematic incentives for enforcement overreach and oâŚ
EFFGOLD 8.5derechos digitalesâ 4 fuentesđ bien sourcedFri, 21 Aug 2026 16:03:17
This week, EFF, along with Big Brother Watch, Defend Digital Me, Liberty, Open Rights Group, Race Equality First, Statewatch, and Stopwatch, wrote to Nottinghamshire Police Force in the UK raising concern about the proposed roll-out of live facial recognition technology (LFR), and called for its immâŚ
Reversing course, Flock Safetyâthe surveillance technology vendor most known for its extensive network of automated license plate readersâhas announced that it will end a pilot for its acoustic gunshot detection devices to identify signs of âhuman distress.â
...public pressure can sometimes work to âŚ
Thereâs a new boogeyman in the battles over AI: so-called âstealth crawlers.â Weâll admit itâthe term âstealth crawlersâ sounds quite nefarious. In reality, theyâre anything but.
âStealth crawlersâ are simply automated tools to access and collect public web dataâwithout disclosing the userâs identitâŚ
A new report from the Government Accounting Office reveals that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to nearly triple the number of surveillance towers along U.S. borders, from the current 830 to 2,300 by 2034.
DHS expects to expend $1 billion in taxpayer dollars for this dangerous expansâŚ
Are you a California resident? Then we've got exciting news for you: there's a tool just for you that lets you take a single, relatively easy step to protect your privacy.Â
It's called a DROP request. (That's Delete Request and Opt-out Platform, if you're fancy). This one bit of paperwork lets you tâŚ
Intermediary liability laws around the world recognize that social media platforms, search engines, and other online service providers have become an integral part of our lives: they shape how we access information, communicate with others and participate in public debate, and foster innovation onliâŚ
Legal intern Suzanne Castillo was the principal author of this post.
The Fourth Circuit issued a disappointing opinion in U.S. v. Belmonte Cardozo, a case in which EFF filed an amicus brief, alongside the national ACLU, its Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia affiliates, and the NâŚ
Police departments across the country are lining up to launch drone-as-first-responder (DFR) programs, and hundreds have cleared a necessary hurdle toward making deployment a reality, expanding aerial surveillance and data collection even in areas patrol officers typically can't reach.
As of FebruarâŚ
For years, John Deere had actively made repairing their tractors near-impossible for anyone but itself and the few "authorized" repair shopsâregardless of the ability of its customers to actually visit such shops. Now, in a major win for farmers and right to repair advocates, John Deere must soon prâŚ
EFFâs first EFFecting Change livestream was all the way back in July of 2024. Maybe you've caught each stream, or maybe youâve only caught a few. Or maybe youâre like me and prefer to listen to conversations like these on your daily commute! Either way, if you want to stay on top of these monthly coâŚ
Update 8/10/2026: Two San Francisco bars that used Patronscan have said they will stop using the system after listening to customersâ privacy concerns. EFF applauds this change and we hope other bars follow suit by returning to ID-checking systems that respect their customersâ rights.
âââââââââââââââŚ
The concept of âsurveillance pricingâ is just one part of a much larger problem and business model: corporations maximizing their profits by invading our privacy. The all-too-common business model is to systematically harvest, collate, and store as much of our personal data as possible, and then monâŚ
Watches, bands, and ringsâif you want to digitally monitor your fitness, more companies than ever are selling devices to do it. And more Americans than ever now own at least one wearable health device. But what are the companies that make fitness trackers doing to protect our sensitive data from pryâŚ
This post is available as a printable one page handout in English and Spanish.
Recordings of law enforcement, whether by bystanders or by those directly encountering officers, can be powerful tools of government accountability and can support movements for social change. But recording officers can câŚ
Update: The Senate Commerce Committee voted to advance this bill on August 5, 2026. EFF continues to oppose the bill, which still needs approval from the full Senate.Â
Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing education, and the way people search for information. Parents, teenagers, teachers, and âŚ
Update: On August 5, 2026, The Senate Commerce Committee voted 15-13 to advance this bill, but the bill did not advance because of a lack of Senators in attendance. EFF continues to oppose the bill.Â
The Senate Commerce Committee is set to consider S. 737, the SCREEN Act, a sweeping age-verificationâŚ
California lawmakers have amended A.B. 1709, but the core problem remains: the bill is still a ban on social media access for youth under 16, and it still threatens the privacy and First Amendment rights of all Californians.
Proponents of the bill may argue that the recent amendments represent a comâŚ
It's time. Time for tinkerers, security researchers, hackers, and fellow nerds to gather together in signature black hoodies and utilikilts to beat the heat in Las Vegas for the summer security conferences: BSidesLV, Black Hat USA, and DEF CON.
EFF's lawyers, activists, and technologists are excitedâŚ
Update: The Senate Commerce Committee voted to advance this bill on August 5, 2026. EFF continues to oppose the bill, which still needs approval from the full Senate.Â
The Senate Commerce Committee is poised to consider the Youth AI Privacy Act, a bill that would require AI companies to create kids-âŚ
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in July issued a proposed policy statement âconcerning the suppression of accuracy in artificial intelligence systems.â We urge the FTC to withdraw this misguided proposal and instead focus on its core strengths and mission to protect consumers.Â
The new proposed pâŚ
EFF joined a group of 18 civil society organizations to send a letter encouraging New York Governor Kathy Hochul to veto Senate Bill 9934A, the New York Stealth Crawler Prohibition Act. The letter states:
While framed as a measure to protect local journalism, this legislation harms free expression aâŚ
Update: The Senate Commerce Committee voted to advance this bill on August 5, 2026. EFF continues to oppose the bill, which still needs approval from the full Senate.Â
The Senate Commerce Committee is once again considering legislation that would dramatically expand age verification, and undermine pâŚ
In the scorching heat of every Las Vegas summer, EFF joins thousands of hackers, makers, policy analysts, and activists for the world's largest computer security gathering. If you're there during this summer security week, be sure to say hello to us at BSides Las Vegas, Black Hat Briefings, and DEF âŚ
Across mobile platforms, advertising companies provide developers with software development kits (SDKs) that make it easy to monetize their apps. But those same SDKs can automatically feed usersâ location data into ad systems that location data brokers use to track people. Many developers may not evâŚ
Developers Must Beware of Ad Libraries that Betray Usersâ PrivacySAN FRANCISCO â Some software development kits (SDKs) provided by advertising companies to help developers monetize their apps are automatically feeding usersâ location data into systems that location data brokers use to track people, âŚ
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has endorsed a commonsense technical interpretation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a law not usually given to such interpretation. Amazon had sued Perplexity AI to try to shut down its Comet browser, claiming the browserâs optional agentic AI âAssistanâŚ
The Senate Commerce Committee will vote this week on several censorious and privacy invasive bills: KOSA, the SCREEN Act, Youth AI Privacy Act, and CHATBOT Act. While we appreciate that the Committee is taking the time to look at these bills separately, itâs still impossible to ignore the message CoâŚ
Access to accurate information about reproductive and maternal health can be critical. But on Meta's platforms, simply talking about prescription medication, abortion care, or one's own medical experiences can be enough to trigger content removals and account restrictions.
That's why EFF recently suâŚ
Imagine if McDonaldâs could use trademark law to control how you use the term âfast food.â Or if the Canadian government could stop you from using the word âCanadaâ in the title of a book about the country and its people. That wouldnât just be absurd; it would be an unacceptable obstacle to criticisâŚ
Weâve had a few questions from EFF supporters lately, asking whether the images we use on our blog posts, or on donation and shop items, have been created with AI image generators. Weâd like to answer these questions and clarify our internal policy regarding image creation.Â
EFF images are all made âŚ
Flock Safety, the embattled vendor of mass surveillance technology, has rolled out a handful of new reforms intended to appease the justified nationwide anger that has seen scores of towns cancel or suspend their contracts with the company for automated license plate readers (ALPRs). The reforms areâŚ
Last week, the House voted on the KIDS Act, a disjointed package of legislation that seeks to control Americansâ web browsing and private messaging. The package combines a revised version of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), with several other internet bills, study bills, reporting requirements, anâŚ
Last May, EFF reported that a sheriffâs office in Texas searched data from more than 83,000 automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras to track down a woman suspected of self-managing an abortion. ALPRs are promoted as tools for keeping communities safe by finding missing persons and locating stoâŚ
This post is part 2 in a series about automated content moderation. Read the first post here.
When whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked a set of documents from Meta in 2020, among the revelations was a jarring statistic: The companyâs algorithms designed to detect terrorist content incorrectly deleteâŚ
In my first weeks as Executive Director of EFF, Iâve been reminded every day how consequential this moment is in determining what kind of future we will have.
We are on the edge. What each one of us steps up to do â with our expertise, energy, and resources â will determine whether our future is onâŚ
In the global race to build and dominate the AI industry, it can sure seem like the interests of ordinary people sit last on the agenda. It's just the opposite for EFF. While companies furiously jam AI tools into their veins and your eyeballs, EFFâs technologists, activists, and attorneys have been âŚ
This blog post is part 1 of a 2-part series. The second part will set out recommendations for companies and policymakers.Six years agoâone month into a global pandemicâwe argued that the automated moderation processes many platforms were rapidly adopting should be highly transparent, easily appealabâŚ
Google owes its existence to the open web, but today, its technological âinnovationsâ have much to do with locking users into a âwalled garden.â The latest of these is âreCAPTCHA Mobile Verification,â an experimental initiative that will let companies block users if they are running independent, "deâŚ
Users are always seeking more control over their social networking experience to make it better, whether to improve privacy or enhance flexibility. Interoperability between social networking platforms like Facebook and TikTok has so many benefits that solve those issues. Â
Say youâre on multiple plaâŚ
