EFF action alerts

California lawmakers are advancing A.B. 2047 toward a floor vote in the State Assembly within the next few weeks. The bill would require 3D printers sold in California to run government-approved software that scans every print and leaves it up to unproven algorithms to identify blueprints which could be firearm components. The real impact however is surveillance, manufacturer lock-in, and censorship without recourse — while the scheme is easily bypassed by people already willing to break existing law by producing firearm parts.

Unlike similar bills, A.B. 2047 goes as far as criminalizing individual users who disable or modify these systems, implicating the open source community and any users or developers who create or use third-party tools.

This bill won’t stop ghost guns, and it’s not about safety. This law demands an unfeasible tech solution for something that is already illegal, and is an attack on user control over devices they already own. California legislators are handing a huge gift to printer manufacturers looking to lock-in users. Creators across the state, from engineers to costume designers, will be stuck with fewer choices, new inconveniences, and enshittification driving up costs and surveillance risks.

California is not merely another state market. It is large enough to set defaults for the entire technology industry. We need to stand with grassroot innovators and demand that the legislature reject A.B. 2047.

There are no excuses for any Member of Congress to support a clean reauthorization of Section 702. Anyone who votes to do so does not take your privacy seriously. Full stop.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is among the United States’ most infamous mass surveillance programs. Sold to the public as a foreign surveillance tool, it has become a backdoor for law enforcement to search through Americans’ private communications without ever obtaining a warrant. We need to act now to prevent Congress from reauthorizing 702 in a way that ignores the truth: This authority needs to change.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has attempted several times to push re-authorization bills that give us now substantive reforms. We will not fall for fig leafs or shifts in rhetoric. Our demands are common sense: no renewal without real reforms. A simple extension is a betrayal of every US resident who expects their government to respect their rights and the Constitution.

Your representative needs to hear from you right now, before the 45 date extension ends and Congress will need to vote again. Contact them today.

Tell them: No vote on any bills that would reauthorize Section 702 without meaningful reform.

Congress is moving quickly on the revised GUARD Act, S. 3062. While lawmakers narrowed the bill after widespread criticism, it still requires intrusive age-verification systems for AI companions and imposes steep penalties on developers offering conversational AI tools.

The California Assembly is fast-tracking A.B. 1709, a bill that would ban everyone under 16 from social media. This over-reaching censorship scheme threatens your data privacy, ignores the First Amendment, and wastes taxpayer money during a massive budget deficit. And, by overriding the judgment of parents, the California Legislature is trying to take parenting away from families and replace it with an overbroad ban and a costly (and shady) new government commission.

Tell your representatives to vote NO on A.B. 1709.

New York’s state budget could pass within days. Buried deep in the text is a provision that has nothing to do with balancing the books. Part C of the budget bill would require every 3D printer sold in New York to run surveillance software that scans every design file you create, and blocks anything an algorithm flags as a potential firearm component. A separate provision would expose researchers, journalists, and educators to felony charges simply for possessing or sharing certain design files.

This isn’t a niche issue for hobbyists. This is the state mandating censorship infrastructure on your devices, and handing printer companies a way to lock in and surveil users. It’s a direct attack on grassroots innovation and user control.

New York is one of the largest consumer markets in the country. When it mandates technology in hardware, manufacturers don’t build a New York-only version. They build one version and sell it everywhere. What passes in Albany won’t stay in New York.

The vote could happen within days. If you’re a New Yorker, contact your legislators now.

Court after court has recognized that no one can own the text of the law. But the Pro Codes Act is a deceptive power grab that will help giant industry associations ration access to huge swaths of U.S. laws. Tell Congress not to fall for it.