Category: http://www.eff.org/rss/updates.xml

California Legislator Introduces Fiber Broadband for All Bill

Senator Lena Gonzalez has introduced legislation (SB 1130), which would allow the California state government to actively promote the transition of the state’s legacy communications infrastructure into a multi-gigabit fiber network that is competitive, affordable, and available to all residents…

Vallejo Must Suspend Cell-Site Simulator Purchase

As Bay Area residents sheltered at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vallejo City Council assembled via teleconference last week to vote on the purchase of one of the most controversial pieces of surveillance equipment—a cell-site simulator. What’s worse…

Speaking Freely: An Interview with Cristian León

Cristian León, based in Buenos Aires, works for Asuntos del Sur, a “think/do tank” that works to strengthen democracy and participation. Originally from Bolivia, Cristian works on open government and democracy across several countries in Latin America, including conducting digital…

Right to Repair in Times of Pandemic

Entropy isn’t just a word, it’s the (second) law (of thermodynamics): the idea that things tend towards chaos and brokenness. That’s why the Right to Repair is so close to our heart: fixing things is nothing less than the embodiment…

Enough is Enough—Let it Expire

On March 15, 2020, Section 215—a provision of FISA with a rich history of government overreach and abuse—expired. That provision, along with two other provisions of FISA, lapsed after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on a broader set of…

Why Is South Korea a Global Broadband Leader?

A universal fiber network that was completed years ago. Millions of 5G users. Some of the world’s fastest and cheapest broadband connections. South Korea has all of these, while other nations that have the same resources lag behind. How did…

Redditor Wins Fight to Stay Anonymous

Judge Blocks Religious Group’s Quest to Unmask Online Critic San Francisco – A Reddit commenter has won their fight to stay anonymous after facing an improper copyright claim from the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, a group that publishes doctrines…

Reform or Expire

Earlier today, the House Committee on the Judiciary was scheduled to mark up the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act of 2020, a bill meant to reform and reauthorize Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, as well as some other provisions…

Empty Promises Won’t Save the .ORG Takeover

The Internet Society’s (ISOC) November announcement that it intended to sell the Public Interest Registry (PIR, the organization that oversees the .ORG domain name registry) to a private equity firm sent shockwaves through the global NGO sector. The announcement came…

EFF Files Comments Criticizing Proposed CCPA Regulations

Today, EFF joined a coalition of privacy advocates in filing comments with the California Attorney General regarding its ongoing rulemaking process for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The CCPA was passed in 2018, and took effect on January 1,…

Apple, Tell Us More About Your App Store Takedowns

EFF and 10 human rights organizations called out Apple for enabling China’s censorship and surveillance regime through overly broad content restrictions on the App Store in China, and for its decision to move iCloud backups and encryption keys to within…

EFF Fights to Protect Anonymity of Glassdoor Commenter

Speakers’ Opinions About Their Former Workplace Are Protected by First Amendment San Francisco – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is asking a state court to protect the identity of an anonymous Glassdoor commenter who is being targeted by their former…

How Twitter’s Default Settings Can Leak Your Phone Number

Twitter has publicly disclosed a security “incident” that points to long-standing problems with how the service handles phone numbers. Twitter announced it had discovered and shut down “a large network of fake accounts” that were uploading large numbers of phone…

How To Protect Your Phone Number On Twitter

The bad news is that Twitter has disclosed a failure to protect users’ phone numbers, again. The good news is that Twitter users can take steps to protect themselves. Earlier this week, Twitter announced it had discovered and shut down…