EFF action alerts

Your sensitive personal information is being sold in a toxic data marketplace, whether you like it or not. Private companies harvest all sorts of personal information about you and sell it to the highest bidder—including the U.S. government.

So we need federal legislation to make sure that the Fourth Amendment isn’t being trampled. Congress needs to explicitly bar law enforcement and intelligence agencies from purchasing data from private companies that it would have otherwise needed a warrant to acquire.

We’re asking you to write to your Representatives and Senators and urge them to support HR 2738/S.1265 or the Fourth Amendment is Not For Sale Act. The bill would prevent the government from purchasing geolocation information and other data that could reveal a tremendous amount of personal and revealing information.

Just because your data is for sale at the market, doesn’t mean the government should be allowed to buy it.

California is facing a broadband access crisis. This has only become more apparent in light of the pandemic, as parents rely more on the Internet every day trying to keep their jobs in the midst of the pandemic while remotely educating their kids.

The people of California need help, and the state should move forward now to begin the work needed to finally close the digital divide. Now it is time to rally Sacramento to get these changes made into law and start eliminating the digital divide.

Everyone online relies on strong encryption for our privacy and security. But federal law enforcement officials keep attacking encryption, seeking backdoor access that would allow the government to scan our messages. This year, we have a chance to fight back.

Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) and Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI) have proposed to ban federal funds from being spent on software or hardware that creates security vulnerabilities or weakens end-to-end encryption. Tell your Representative to back the Malinowski-Meijer language in an upcoming appropriations bill.

The surveillance apparatus in the United States, at the local, state, and federal levels, has been out of control for a long time. In the last two decades, the intelligence community and law enforcement at all levels of government have greatly increased their sharing of sensitive information about people. All too often, bad information passes back and forth, and these arrangements expand political policing and surveillance of activists and protests.

Washington: Tell Gov. Inslee that everyone deserves reliable Internet. H.B. 1336, authored by Washington State Representative Drew Hansen. This bill would remove restrictions in current Washington law that prevent public entities from building and providing broadband services.

With over nine thousand face scans in 2020 alone, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) is a leading abuser of New Yorkers’ freedoms through its use of face recognition, a biased, broken, and invasive technology.

No government agency should use face recognition. There is special urgency to end the NYPD’s use of this dangerous technology given the department’s history of misconduct, and its failure to properly manage officer use of the technology. Join us in calling on City Council Speaker Corey Johnson to introduce and pass legislation banning government use of face recognition technology in New York City.

Living in the United States has meant paying more for worse Internet access than we should. In a truly competitive market, we should have many options for our Internet service provider, high speeds, and universal access. We do not have these things, but a new bill in Congress and President Biden’s infrastructure plan would put the United States on the path to true universal, high-speed, affordable Internet.

Tell your senators and representative to vote for the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act.

It’s very easy these days to claim that something is bad for Big Tech and therefore good for everyone else. In the case of copyright, the claim is that requiring tech companies to do more to fight copyright infringement will help artists and force tech to be accountable. But all of us who spend time online know that this is wrong. We know that, when it comes to copyright, it is not Big Tech on one side, creators on the other.

Copyright filters, like YouTube’s Content ID, cause creators to lose money, creative freedom, and audiences. Copyright takedowns can be abused for harassment, extortion, or censorship. What creators need is not more copyright enforcement by Big Tech. While many of us who go online understand that, Congress often does not. That is why we need you to stand up and say the draft Digital Copyright Act would be a disaster for online creativity.

The Virginia legislature, with help from Microsoft and Amazon, passed a so-called privacy bill, the Consumer Data Protection Act (SB 1392), that would do next to nothing to protect your privacy rights. Call on Governor Northam to veto these bills and stand up for consumers.

The Virginia legislature, with help from Microsoft and Amazon, has introduced and voted on a so-called privacy bill, the Consumer Data Protection Act (SB 1392), that would do next to nothing to protect your privacy rights.

Police use of face recognition technology chills free speech, threatens residents’ privacy, and amplifies historical bias in our criminal justice system.

Let the Minneapolis City Council know, it’s time to ban government use of face surveillance in Minneapolis.