[Accessing] any part of a computer system without right. Cyber-squatting. Cybersex. Computer-related forgery. What do these things have in common? They are all punishable acts under Philippines’ Cybercrime Prevention Act. EFF has closely followed the Philippines Republic Act No. 10175, also known as the Cybercrime Prevention Act, since it was passed in September 2012. This controversial Act has been attacked by journalists and rights groups who oppose its draconian legislation, in particular, the libel provision that criminalizes anonymous online criticism. In October 2012, activists in the Philippines took to social media and—taking a cue from the PIPA/SOPA protests—campaigned for website…
Author: EFFSource
We were thrilled to hear today that Yahoo is carrying through a concerted effort to protect users across its sites and services by rolling out routine encryption in several parts of its infrastructure. The company’s statement announced that, among other things, it now encrypts traffic between its data centers, makes secure HTTPS connections the default for some web sites, and has turned on encryption for mail delivery between Yahoo Mail and other email services that support it (like Gmail). We’ve long asked Internet companies to take some of these steps, most recently through our Encrypt the Web scorecard. We’re updating…
Copyright Law Shouldn’t Control How and Where Viewers Watch TVSan Francisco – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today filed an amicus brief in American Broadcasting Companies v. Aereo, a case before the United States Supreme Court that could have a lasting impact on broadcast technology and viewers’ ability to choose how and when they watch their favorite television programs. Public Knowledge, the Consumer Electronics Association, and Engine Advocacy all joined the brief, asking the Supreme Court to leave room for innovation in digital technology. Through Aereo, consumers rent access to a unique TV antenna that is connected to the Internet,…
Representatives Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger, the leaders of the House Intelligence Committee, introduced HR 4291, the FISA Transparency and Modernization Act (.pdf), to end the collection of all Americans’ calling records using Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Both have vehemently defended the program since June, and it’s reassuring to see two of the strongest proponents of NSA’s actions agreeing with privacy advocates’ (and the larger public’s) demands to end the program. The bill only needs 17 lines to stop the calling records program, but it weighs in at more than 40 pages. Why? Because the “reform” bill tries…
In an emergency hearing on March 19th, the government tried to convince the Northern District Court of California that the NSA should be relieved of its obligation to preserve evidence of dragnet collection of call records for the EFF’s First Unitarian case. The arguments in court revealed an astounding level of obfuscation from government lawyers around the numerous lawsuits challenging NSA spying. There were a number of issues at the core of the argument. EFF was asking the government to preserve information that it never should have had in the first place. The government was misconstruing (willfully or blindly) our…
Last week we wrote about initial news reports that Microsoft had searched and disclosed the contents of a blogger’s Hotmail account as part of an internal investigation into the alleged theft of Microsoft source code and other trade secrets. Since then, EFF has been in touch with Microsoft to discuss our objections to the company’s policy regarding its access to user content. Today Microsoft announced a change to that policy: Effective immediately, if we receive information indicating that someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property from Microsoft, we will not inspect a customer’s private…
Geneva—The Electronic Frontier Foundation is pleased with the UN Human Rights Committee’s concluding observations from the United States’ review on its compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The Human Rights Committee is a human rights body that monitors state implementation of the obligations relevant to privacy as outlined in the ICCPR. On March 27 the Committee released their review of the US, flagging several inadequacies with the United States’ compliance. In a dispatch from Geneva, EFF’s International Rights Director, Katitza Rodriguez, welcomes the Committee’s observations and urges the United States to conform to the recommendations.…
As Turkey prepares for elections on Sunday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan continues to double down on Internet censorship. A week after Turkish ISPs blocked Twitter Turkey’s telecommunications authority has blocked YouTube. The block began to be rolled out hours after a leaked recording published anonymously on YouTube purported to show a conversation in which Turkey’s foreign minister, spy chief, and a top general appear to discuss scenarios that could lead to a Turkish attack against militants in Syria. The fallout from the Erdoğan government’s censorship spree has not been limited to platforms that host embarrassing political content. When…
Rumors of the extent of Ethiopia’s digital surveillance and censorship state have echoed around the information security community for years. Journalists such as Eskinder Nega have spoken of being shown text messages, printouts of emails, and recordings of their own telephone conversations by the Ethiopian security services. From within the country, commentators connected growing telecommunications surveillance to the increasing presence of Chinese telecommunications company ZTE. Externally, analysis of the targeted surveillance of exiled Ethiopians have turned up surveillance software built and sold by Western companies, such as FinFisher and Hacking Team. Observers of the country’s national Internet censorship have reported…
Join EFF on April 4th for 404 Day, a nation-wide day of action to call attention to the long-standing problem of Internet censorship in public libraries and public schools. In collaboration with the MIT Center for Civic Media and the National Coalition Against Censorship, we are hosting a digital teach-in with some of the top researchers and librarians working to analyze and push back against the use of Internet filters on library computers. For over a decade public libraries and public schools have been censoring the Internet by blocking and blacklisting websites to be in compliance with the Children’s Internet…