About Face (Recognition) | EFFector 36.5

1 day 7 hours ago

There are a lot of updates in the fight for our freedoms online, from a last-minute reauthorization bill to expand Section 702 (tell your senators to vote NO on the bill here!), a new federal consumer data privacy law (we deserve better!), and a recent draft from the FCC to reinstate net neutrality (you can help clean it up!).

It can feel overwhelming to stay up to date, but we've got you covered with our EFFector newsletter! You can read the full issue here, or subscribe to get the next one in your inbox automatically! You can also listen to the audio version of the newsletter on the Internet Archive, or by clicking the button below:

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EFFECTOR 36.5.- About Face (Recognition)

Since 1990 EFF has published EFFector to help keep readers on the bleeding edge of their digital rights. We know that the intersection of technology, civil liberties, human rights, and the law can be complicated, so EFFector is a great way to stay on top of things. The newsletter is chock full of links to updates, announcements, blog posts, and other stories to help keep readers—and listeners—up to date on the movement to protect online privacy and free expression. 

Thank you to the supporters around the world who make our work possible! If you're not a member yet, join EFF today to help us fight for a brighter digital future.

Christian Romero

Tell the U.S. Senate: STOP RISAA, the FISA Mass Surveillance Expansion

2 days ago

We all deserve privacy in our communications. Part of that is imposing limits upon the government’s ability to collect and access them. That’s why it’s critical to reform Section 702, the mass surveillance law that creates an end run around our constitutional rights and a back door for the government to query our communications. In the last few weeks, there have been multiple attempts to reauthorize this power with varying levels of reform and compromise. Nearly half of the U.S. House of Representatives supported requiring the government to obtain court approval before accessing Americans’ communications in the government’s Section 702 databases—but at the last minute, the pro-mass surveillance side passed a bill which actually expands, rather than reforms these powers. That’s why we need you to tell the Senate to stop it!

What happened: Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is set to expire on April 19. The House of Representatives just passed the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), a reauthorization bill that greatly increases the scope of information the government can collect under Section 702 , and allows the government to use this unaccountable and out-of-control mass surveillance authority to spy on hopeful immigrants and asylum seekers. This move abandons any real argument that this is for terrorism or intelligence only.

The U.S. Senate will likely try to advance this terrible bill this week – a bill that Sen. Ron Wyden called “one of the most dramatic and terrifying expansions of government surveillance authority in history.” He’s right.

Tell your Senators to vote NO on the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act. Our call tool will make it easy for you to call your Senator—it only takes a moment.

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Tell Congress: Absent Major Changes, 702 Should Not be Renewed

2 days ago

We all deserve privacy in our communications, and part of that is trusting that the government will only access them within the limits of the law. But it's now clear that the government hasn’t respected any limits on the intelligence community or law enforcement. When it comes to Section 702, a law that continues to allow spying on Americans, they've ignored our rights.

This April, Section 702 is set to expire, and the current administration will try everything in their power to renew it. We think it’s time for 702 to end entirely and that any future programs must start from scratch in order to protect the privacy of digital communications. EFF will continue to fight to make sure that any bill that does renew Section 702 closes the government’s warrantless access to U.S. communications, minimizes the amount of data collected, and increases transparency. Anything less than that would signal a continued indifference, or contempt, to our right to privacy.

Tell Congress it’s time they protect our privacy!

Electronic Frontier Foundation