House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi firmly announced her rejection of the “Fast Track” bill at an event on Wednesday, saying it was “out of the question.” Its passage has become increasingly tenuous since Senate Majority leader Harry Reid came out against it two weeks ago. Fast Track is a mechanism that empowers the White House with sweeping authority to sign off on trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), limiting Congress’ constitutional powers to set trade objectives, choose trading partners, and call hearings and amend all provisions. Opposition from Democrat leaders in the House and Senate is a major setback…
Author: EFFSource
EFF is offering four pairs of tickets to the sold-out Trustworthy Technology Conference on February 27 in San Francisco, CA. For the next week, we will host auctions for full TrustyCon admission. The winners of the auctions will each receive a year-long EFF Rare Earths Level Membership (normally a $500 contribution level) featuring the renowned NSA Spying hooded sweatshirt. The best part is that every dollar from these auctions will go directly toward funding EFF’s digital freedom initiatives, so please bid today. In the spirit of strengthening and enriching the computer security community, EFF has chosen to give a pair…
February is Black History Month and that history is intimately linked with surveillance by the federal government in the name of “national security.” Indeed, the history of surveillance in the African-American community plays an important role in the debate around spying today and in the calls for a congressional investigation into that surveillance. Days after the first NSA leaks emerged last June, EFF called for a new Church Committee. We mentioned that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was one of the targets of the very surveillance that eventually led to the formation of the first Church Committee. This Black History…
This is Michigan Stadium, the largest football stadium by capacity in the United States. It fits 109,901 people. Imagine two Michigan Stadiums, filled to capacity, with 219,802 people. Imagine that all those people are doing the same thing at the same time—contacting Congress and demanding an end to mass surveillance. You’d still fall short of the nearly 250,000 people inside the US that called or emailed their legislators yesterday for The Day We Fight Back. And that’s not even touching the more than 200,000 people around the world that organized actions and signed on to the Necessary and Proportionate principles.…
Academics have joined the fight against mass surveillance. Two open letters were published last month from the academic and research communities. One is signed by U.S. information security and cryptography researchers, and the other is signed by over one thousand scholars from a wide range of disciplines who work in universities all over the world. Both letters agree: global surveillance conducted by U.S. and European governments undermines democracy, the global economy, academic freedom, and our most depended-upon technologies, paradoxically making us all less safe. The signatories of both letters urge that intelligence agencies and national security policies be subject to…
February 11, 2014—The Day We Fought Back. We started something. Of course, the battle didn’t begin today. The groups that organized this action have long been pushing hard for real surveillance reform. But we knew that the time was ripe—that the Snowden leaks, unrelenting media pressure, grassroots activism, and even pressure from within Congress—were creating a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to give the public—worldwide—the chance to voice its opposition to mass spying. We knew that 6,000+ websites were committing to stand with us in a global day of action, that dozens of advocacy organizations worldwide would fight with us. What we didn’t…
El Martes 11 de Febrero, organizaciones de derechos digitales, grupos de la sociedad civil, los autores y los usuarios de Internet a través de seis continentes saldrán a las calles digitales para exigir el fin de la vigilancia masiva. El verano pasado, el contratista NSA Edward Snowden comenzó a filtrar documentos que detallan las alarmantes operaciones de espionaje llevadas a cabo por los EE.UU., Gran Bretaña y otros países aliados. Las revelaciones sobre la ausencia de límites en la vigilancia masiva de parte de los gobiernos han galvanizado personas en todo el mundo, dando lugar a condenas de líderes mundiales…
As organizações de direitos digitais, grupos da sociedade civil, autores e usuários da Internet em seis continentes vão tomar as redes para exigir o fim da vigilância em massa nesta terça-feira, 11 de fevereiro. No verão passado, o funcionário da NSA, Edward Snowden, começou a liberar documentos que detalham as alarmantes operações de coleta realizadas por EUA, Reino Unido e outras nações parceiras. As revelações de que a vigilância em massa por parte dos governos não conhece limites galvanizaram as pessoas ao redor do mundo, levando à condenação por líderes mundiais e a uma resolução das Nações Unidas com base…
February 11th is The Day We All Fight Back. From Uganda to Poland, from Colombia to the Philippines, the people of the Internet have united to fight back. The Day We Fight Back’s main international action is to sign and promote the 13 Principles. The 13 Principles outline how communications surveillance can be conducted consistent with human rights and serve as a model for surveillance reform. Over the past year, nearly 370 organizations have come together to support it. Today, these Principles are about to receive their most important endorsement: the people’s. The Principles make clear: States must recognize that…
Since June, ongoing revelations about the NSA’s activities have shown us the expanding scope of government surveillance. Today is the day people around the world are demanding an end to mass spying. A broad coalition of organizations, companies, and individuals are loudly voicing their stance against unwarranted mass spying—over 6,000 websites have joined together today to demand reform. EFF stands by millions of users—represented by groups like Demand Progress, ACLU, PEN, and Access as well as companies like Google, Twitter, Mozilla, and reddit—to reform governmental collection of innocent users’ information. Over the past few years, we’ve seen the Internet as…