“I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this.” Pete Seeger, 1955, testimony pursuant to subpoena before the House Un-American Activities Committee. The world lost a clear, strong voice for peace, justice, and community with the death of singer and activist Pete Seeger last week. While Seeger was known as an outspoken musician not shy about airing his political opinions, it’s also…
Author: EFFSource
The chorus of voices denouncing the White House’s plan to “fast track” the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is growing louder by the day. Over 550 public interest groups and digital rights organizations sent letters this week to Senate leaders opposing the bill which would severely limit Congress’ role over trade pacts. Sen. Ron Wyden came out and said he isn’t ready to support the legislation. Then in the biggest blow yet, Senate majority leader Harry Reid stated he is “against fast track,” and suggested he would not bring any legislation to the floor that would grant the White House greater trade…
Sgt. Star is a 6-foot-1, clean-shaven, strong-jawed white male, with eyes that match the camouflage pattern on his combat uniform. His voice is deep, authoritative and carefully enunciative. He seems to be in his 30s, but he is actually only about 7 years old. Sgt. Star is not a real person, or at least not a corporeal one. He is a chatbot—an artificial intelligence program designed to hold conversations—that was commissioned by the U.S. Army to help with recruitment efforts. He can recognize questions and dispense answers, verbally and in text, and also help the user surf the GoArmy.com website.…
We thought we won the Crypto Wars, the fight to make strong encryption accessible to all, in the 1990s.1 We were wrong. Last month, Reuters broke news about a deal struck between the popular computer security firm RSA and the National Security Agency. RSA reportedly accepted $10 million from NSA to make Dual_EC_DRBG—an intentionally weakened random number generator—the default in its widely used BSAFE encryption toolkit. RSA encryption tools are an industry standard used by large tech companies and individuals alike, to protect hundreds of millions of people by encrypting our daily online interactions. We trust RSA’s encryption every time…
Copyright reform hearings continue to lumber along in the House of Representatives, with Tuesday’s in the Judiciary Committee marking the seventh in as many months. This hearing was dedicated to “The Scope of Fair Use,” and though the panel of witnesses was more diverse than in some of the earlier hearings, there were still some disappointing trends in the conversation. One area that got significant attention was the topic of mass digitization, which has been repeatedly determined by courts to be a fair and transformative use. Not only is it fair, but as Professor Peter Jaszi noted during the hearing…
For decades, EFF has been fighting to make the world safe for innovation. And we’ve been fighting even longer to protect First Amendment rights to anonymity and privacy. Today, those fights came together, as we went to court to stop a patent troll from obtaining information about a specific group of EFF donors, as well as a vast swath of otherwise privileged information. Last year we filed a petition at the Patent and Trademark Office challenging the so-called ‘podcasting’ patent owned by Personal Audio. More than one thousand people donated to our Save Podcasting campaign to support our efforts. Our…
Co-Authored with Peter Bibring, Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Southern California On Friday, EFF and the ACLU of Southern California filed the opening brief in our lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department for information on how the agencies are using Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR). We argue the departments are improperly withholding these records, keeping important information about this invasive surveillance technology from the public. Both EFF and the ACLU have argued that ALPRs—high-speed cameras mounted on poles and patrol cars that record every passing vehicle’s license plate, along with time, date…
EFF and other public interest groups have sent a letter to lawmakers reiterating our opposition to a “fast track” bill that would restrict Congress ability to have meaningful input into or review trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and others. In particular, we denounce certain “trade objectives” in the bill that encourage a copyright maximalist agenda without upholding fair use rights. Beyond the procedural problems with fast track, the inclusion of such language contradicts an important doctrine in US law that has been crucial to give artists, innovators, students, and the…
Today is Data Privacy Day (also known as Data Protection Day), an international festival of our right to control our own personal information and to protect our communications from unchecked surveillance. It’s not been a great year for either belief. Since last year’s celebration, the Snowden revelations have exposed how vulnerable private information is from unwarranted inspection by the surveillance state. At the same time, we’ve seen reports of incident after incident of major privacy breaches at the hands of criminals from large companies. Our personal data seems less secure than ever. Data Privacy Day is on January 28th in…
The Snowden revelations have confirmed our worst fears about online spying. They show that the NSA and its allies have been building a global surveillance infrastructure to “master the internet” and spy on the world’s communications. These shady groups have undermined basic encryption standards, and riddled the Internet’s backbone with surveillance equipment. They have collected the phone records of hundreds of millions of people none of whom are suspected of any crime. They have swept up the electronic communications of millions of people at home and overseas indiscriminately, exploiting the digital technologies we use to connect and inform. They spy…