68 posts tagged with eff.
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Tracked everywhere? Yes. Tracked everywhere.
It might be your doorbell (Ring Doorbell App Packed with Third-Party Trackers, EFF). It might be your grocery store rewards program (Customer Tracking at Ralphs Grocery Store, Schneier On Security). It might even be your computer anti-virus program (Leaked Documents Expose the Secretive Market for Your Web Browsing Data, Motherboard/Vice). 2020 is an electronic panopticon.
Democracy dies in daylight, too
With 426 days until the 2020 U.S. Election (days.to countdown), you may be wondering about the state of election systems around the country. If so, NPR recently provided what you need to know about U.S. election security and voting machines, which can be paired with EFF's 2016 general article on e-voting machines and elections around the world. Meanwhile, as FEC nears shutdown, priorities such as stopping election interference on hold (NPR, Aug. 30, 2019). [more inside]
Thanks to Galperin, install antivirus. And it may actually do some good.
With a series of revelatory investigative articles on stalkerware by the tech news site Motherboard (When Spies Come Home) in the back of her mind, Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at EFF, posted a message to Twitter, and it invited any victims of sexual violence who had also been threatened with hacking to contact her for help. That tweet, to Galperin's surprise, would end up taking over a significant portion of her life. Now Hacker Eva Galperin Has a Plan to Eradicate Stalkerware (Wired). [more inside]
John Perry Barlow has died.
Barlow, a Lyricist for the Grateful Dead and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, died in his sleep. Barlow met Bob Weir, founding member of the Dead in 1971 and began a songwriting collaboration that would last until 1995, penning lyrics for “Cassidy”, “Mexicali Blues”, “ Looks like rain” and other tunes.
In 1990 he, John Gilmore (cypherpunk, Usenet alt., Cygnus) and Mitch Kapor (Lotus) founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation to “defend civil liberties in the digital world.”
In 2012 Barlow founded the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
He was a great protector of human rights and a true hero of the internet.
On a personal note: I met him once at a TTI Vanguard conference, on which he served as a a board member. He was as charming and fascinating as you might imagine.
California v. Johnson
Kern County got a $200,000+ grant and started using closed-source software to perform a new kind of DNA testing for criminal forensics. Now, the principle at stake in California v. Johnson (California's 5th district court of appeals): does due process require that the defendant be able to examine the evidence used to convict them, which includes auditing forensics software to check for bugs? The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, among others, have filed amicus curiae briefs. [more inside]
EFF resigns from W3C over their Encrypted Media Extension DRM standard
"Today, the W3C bequeaths an legally unauditable attack-surface to browsers used by billions of people. They give media companies the power to sue or intimidate away those who might re-purpose video for people with disabilities. They side against the archivists who are scrambling to preserve the public record of our era. The W3C process has been abused by companies that made their fortunes by upsetting the established order, and now, thanks to EME, they’ll be able to ensure no one ever subjects them to the same innovative pressures." [more inside]
Whose Free Speech Is It Anyway?
This week the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) posted, Fighting Neo-Nazis and the Future of Free Expression, an essay examining the ramifications of corporate control of free speech. [more inside]
Personal threat models and hardening your information to doxing
Sean Gallagher delves into demystifying threat modelling, building from Adam Shostack's Privacy Threat Model for The People of Seattle and Electronic Frontier Foundation's five-question structure. For Sean, it comes down to answering four questions: Who am I, and what am I doing here? What could possibly go wrong? And how? Then, how much can I stand to do about it? Related: if online harassment crossing into your personal life is a concern, Nathan Mattise offers simple strategies that can minimize the physical toll of doxing. [more inside]
Parody rights on making fun of houses
Blogger Kate Wagner, known for McMansion Hell which educates and critiques McMansion architecture, was served with a cease and desist from Zillow, just as the McMansion is coming back into style. Thanks to efforts from the EFF, the blog is back up. McMansion Hell, previously, previouslier.
What happens when privacy violations are committed by devices inside us?
Ross Compton of Ohio was charged with arson based partly on data collected from his pacemaker. A Florida woman's claims of sexual assault were undermined by data from her FitBit. Gizmodo explores what happens when privacy violations are committed by our personal electronics, including implanted medical devices.
TPP: Made in America
Here's the Deal: The Text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership by Barack Obama - "In other words, the TPP means that America will write the rules of the road in the 21st century." (PDFs; previously) [more inside]
How private DNA data led Idaho cops on a wild goose chase
... and linked an innocent man to a 20-year-old murder case. Analysis by the EFF of the case of Michael Usry, a New Orleans filmmaker whose father's DNA profile in a non-profit DNA database, which he had been assured would remain private, dragged him into a grisly unsolved murder case. [more inside]
"He who has access to information controls the game."
1966 BBC documentary predicts challenges of electronic privacy. BBC's 1966 documentary "California 2000", besides being a fascinating flashback in itself, features an amazingly prescient interview with internet pioneer Paul Baran, in which he warns of the risks of government centralized use -- and misuse -- of state-run digital surveillance, 24 years before the EFF was founded.
[more inside]
[more inside]
This plan isn’t for the next two weeks or three months.
EFF’s Game Plan for Ending Global Mass Surveillance
For years, we’ve been working on a strategy to end mass surveillance of digital communications of innocent people worldwide. Today we’re laying out the plan, so you can understand how all the pieces fit together—that is, how U.S. advocacy and policy efforts connect to the international fight and vice versa. Decide for yourself where you can get involved to make the biggest difference.
For years, we’ve been working on a strategy to end mass surveillance of digital communications of innocent people worldwide. Today we’re laying out the plan, so you can understand how all the pieces fit together—that is, how U.S. advocacy and policy efforts connect to the international fight and vice versa. Decide for yourself where you can get involved to make the biggest difference.
Who is really listening?
An international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) is a unique number, usually fifteen digits, associated with Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network mobile phone users. An IMSI catcher is a device, used by the NSA drone program, the police, criminals, Chinese spammers and spies all around Washington DC and the world to spoof the identity of a GSM cell tower and intercept cellular voice and data communication. They come in all sizes and flavors, from tiny or body-worn professional surveillance devices, to easy to order off the shelf solutions, to Chinese DIY (links in Chinese) and have spawned efforts to retaliate with an IMSI-catcher-catcher. IMSI-catcher technology has become increasingly widespread, with far-reaching constitutional and technical implications.
From "Not The Onion"
NSA Tried To Delete Court Transcript In Lawsuit Over Deleting Evidence On three separate occasions in the Jewel V. NSA case, the NSA sought to delete evidence. Then it sought to redact the transcript.
Alaa Abd El-Fattah, et al. via the EFF
Alaa Abd El-Fattah (wp, manalaa.net) is among the many Egyptian activists, organizers, and bloggers being held under the military government's law against protests. The EFF's Bloggers Under Fire section highlights bloggers detained for their online speech and provides advice for bloggers at risk.
30c3
While Jacob Appelbaum grabbed headlines with his NSA revelations at this year's Chaos Communication Congress, other presentations provided equally fascinating insight into how the world works. Learn how data mining is bringing perpetrators of genocide to justice (alt), how an artist uses different concepts of secrecy landscapes (alt) to keep tabs on clandestine activities, and how India's surveillance state continues to grow (alt).
previously [more inside]
TPP Negotiating Text IP Chapter Published by Wikileaks
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has come under fire for the sweeping effects it may have on intellectual property laws in signatory countries, and is expected to export and even extend some of the worst features of US copyright law, including the criminalisation of DRM circumvention. The level of secrecy surrounding the agreement has been controversial: the US Trade Representative has refused to make the text of the agreement public, and only three persons in each TPP nation have access to the full text. The New York Times editorial board has been criticised for its endorsement of the deal, when the public (and supposedly the NYT) were unable to read the agreement.
In advance of the 19-24 November Chief Negotiators summit in Salt Lake City, Wikileaks has obtained and published the secret negotiated draft text of the TPP Intellectual Property Chapter, including negotiation positions and disagreements between all 12 prospective member states. [more inside]
Dear Craig: Voluntarily Dismiss with Prejudice
Over at the Freedom to Tinker blog, Steve Schultze posts about a recent ruling against Craigslist in their suit against PadMapper an online service that helps users of craigslist via mapping, and 3Taps, a platform that documents and stores historical transaction information...
Craigslist responded by filing 17 claims... [more inside]
ReCISPA
The TechNet trade association has been lobbying for CISPA, a bill the EFF describes as a “misguided cybersecurity bill that would create a gaping exception to existing privacy law while doing little to address palpable and pressing online security issues” (previously). Google's Eric Schmidt signed TechNet's letter supporting CISPA. [more inside]
IRS Claims Authority to Read Your E-Mail Without A Warrant
The ACLU reports that the IRS claims in an internal document that it has the authority to access citizens' online communications without a warrant. The IRS claimed in a 2009 document that "the Fourth Amendment does not protect communications held in electronic storage, such as email messages stored on a server, because internet users do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in such communications." It still retains that position even after the 2010 case of US v Warshak which determined that citizens have a reasonable expectation of privacy in such communications. [more inside]
In the future, all Space Marines will be Games Workshop
Last December Amazon blocked sales of the Ebook Spots the Space Marine by author M.C.A. Hogarth after a notice from gaming industry powerhouse Games Workshop that they had trademarked the phrase "Space Marine" and that Hogarth, and anyone else who uses it, is infringing. GW brought this complaint based on "Class 16" of their European tradmark. [more inside]
Electronic surveillance skyrockets in the US
The Justice Department, after a legal battle with the ACLU to avoid having to admit it, recently released documents showing that the federal government’s use of warrantless “pen register” and “tap and trace” surveillance has multiplied over the past decade. But the Justice Department is small potatoes. Every day, the NSA intercepts and stores 1.7 billion emails, phone calls, texts, and other electronic communications. [more inside]
If you've got nothing to hide
"Now we have three former NSA officials confirming the basic facts. Neither the Constitution nor federal law allow the government to collect massive amounts of communications and data of innocent Americans and fish around in it in case it might find something interesting. This kind of power is too easily abused. We're extremely pleased that more whistleblowers have come forward to help end this massive spying program." - the EFF announces that three former employees of the NSA have come forward to testify in their lawsuit against the NSA over the domestic spying program.
when woz cries
CISPA
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is a controversial surveillance bill that proposes broad legal exemptions for the U.S. government and private companies to share "cyber threat intelligence" that go well beyond the FISA Amendments Act which legalized the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program. [more inside]
Decentralized SSL Observatory
EFF's HTTPS Everywhere v2 adds support for Chrome and adds Decentralized SSL Observatory to the FireFox version, [more inside]
The Year Secrecy Jumped the Shark
The EFF's Year End Review The ACLU's This Year in Civil Liberties Amnesty International's Anual Report (video) [more inside]
Free speech is only as strong as the weakest link
"Speech on the Internet requires a series of intermediaries to reach its audience. Each intermediary is vulnerable to some degree to pressure from those who want to silence the speaker. Even though the Internet is decentralized and distributed, "weak links" in this chain can operate as choke points to accomplish widespread censorship." Free speech is only as strong as the weakest link
On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.
American Censorship Day is an internet protest against the oft-renamed Stop Online Piracy Act. [more inside]
Save Our Snark!
William Lawrence Cassidy has been indicted for a series of threatening tweets directed towards Alyce Zeoli, aka Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, the leader of a Buddhist organization known as Kunzang Palyul Choling (KPC) to which Cassidy had belonged. There is however a small problem that federal prosecutors are employing a vague anti-stalking law that makes 'intentional infliction of emotional distress' through the use of 'any interactive computer service' a felony, rather than focussing more narrowly upon the outright threats. [more inside]
Humble Bundle 3: Frozenbyte
The Humble Frozenbyte Bundle. It's back! The third Humble Bundle (previously: 1 2) includes Trine, Shadowgrounds, Shadowgrounds: Survivor, and more, all from indie Finnish developer Frozenbyte. Pay what you want and choose how to split the proceeds between the EFF, Child's Play, Frozenbyte, and Humble Bundle Inc.
The Twitter Three & Ethan McCord
On the one year anniversary of wikileaks release of Collateral Murder, Panorama has released a documentary on the shooting featuring an interview with Ethan McCord.
The Netherlands' Minister of Foreign Affairs Uri Rosenthal commemorated the occasion by informing a Green MP that he "would not rule out extraditing Rop Gonggrijp to the US" for Gonggrijp's role in the video's production. The ACLU and EFF are appealing a U.S. subpoena of the twitter accounts belonging to Rop Gonggrijp, Birgitta Jonsdottir, and Jacob Appelbaum.
The Netherlands' Minister of Foreign Affairs Uri Rosenthal commemorated the occasion by informing a Green MP that he "would not rule out extraditing Rop Gonggrijp to the US" for Gonggrijp's role in the video's production. The ACLU and EFF are appealing a U.S. subpoena of the twitter accounts belonging to Rop Gonggrijp, Birgitta Jonsdottir, and Jacob Appelbaum.
Corporations, Don't Take It Personally
Today the Supreme Court in ruled 8-0 in FCC v. ATT that corporations have no "personal privacy" exemption under the Freedom of Information Act. The opinion ended the speculation that the Supreme Court would use this case to take yet another step towards equating corporations with actual people. For links to the various briefs, lower court decisions, and a summary of the underlying facts and opinion, visit the SCOTUSblog. [more inside]
COICA still alive
The "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act" (COICA) is back on the Judiciary Committee's schedule. This bill would create two blacklists (without due process) of domains which ISPs (in the USofA) would be forced to block, based on alleged copyright infringement. [more inside]
Fink Different
... Apple will know who you are, where you are, and what you are doing and saying and even how fast your heart is beating. ... This patent is downright creepy and invasive— certainly far more than would be needed to respond to the possible loss of a phone.
Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique.
In another of their many efforts in the field of digital rights and laws surrounding them, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has released Panopticlick, a tool to analyze the information your browser shares, revealing how personally identifiable your browser's footprint is. [more inside]
Who owns The Man?
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published a criticism of Burning Man, LLC's Terms and Conditions, saying that the automatic rights assignment to BMOrg for photos & video taken during the event is "creative lawyering intended to allow the BMO to use the streamlined “notice and takedown” process enshrined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to quickly remove photos from the Internet" and that this is corrosive to our freedom of speech. Burning Man responds.
Surveillance Self-Defense
The SSD Project. "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has created this Surveillance Self-Defense site to educate the American public about the law and technology of government surveillance in the United States, providing the information and tools necessary to evaluate the threat of surveillance and take appropriate steps to defend against it." [Via]
Room 641A
Great new way to prevent liability or hurdle to fair use?
Google has announced plans to implement a filter for copyrighted works on youTube. They have been receiving criticism from all sides. [more inside]
The Internets is Serious Business
"Dear Internet, I'm Sorry..." Meet Michael Crook, being billed as "the most hated man on the internet". First coming in to view when taking a really bad idea to it's ridiculous extreme, he appears on Fox's Hannity & Colmes to lambast members of the military for being "worthless pukes" and whining about their compensation. One site decides to give him a taste of his own medicine, which he clearly didn't like.
You had to live -- did live, from the habit that became instinct and the assumption that every sound you made was overheard.
For Your Eyes Only? Allegations that the government is reading your e-mails, with the help of AT&T. The latest episode of NOW did a good piece on the NSA's domestic surveillance program (previously discussed here.) It can be viewed on their website. Meanwhile, Canadian human rights attorney Maureen Webb has written a new book on the scope of government surveillance, and found that the use of sophisticated methods to search for terrorists is not identifying the right suspects.
Your world, delivered to the NSA
John McCain Wants To Regulate Blogs
Senator John McCain (R. - AZ) has introduced legislation [PDF] that would hold blogs responsible for all activity in their comments sections and user profiles. Provisions of the proposed bill include: (1) commercial websites and personal blogs "would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000," (2) bloggers with comment sections may face "even stiffer penalties" than ISPs, and (3) any social-networking site must take "effective measures" to remove any Web page that's "associated" with a sex offender. "Because 'social-networking site' isn't defined, it could encompass far more than just MySpace.com, Friendster and similar sites." The list could include any site that allows comments, authot and personal profiles. Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes that this proposal may be based more "on fear or political considerations rather than on the facts." "McCain’s legislation could deal a serious blow to the blogosphere. Lacking resources to police their sites, many individual blogs may have to shut down open discussion."*
Glickman v. Barlow
Dan Glickman, president of the MPAA, and John Perry Barlow, Greatful Dead lyricist and co-founder of the EFF, debate movie piracy in this interview (RealVideo) on the BBC's "Click".
AT&T-NSA documents leaked
Wired News has obtained a copy of a file detailing AT&T's involvement with the NSA that was sealed in the EFF's class-action lawsuit against AT&T. At 2AM EST this morning they have published that file on their site for anyone to download (this is the fixed link, the one on Wired is currently broken).[via]
EFF Whistleblower Wiretapping Suit Halted by Nuclear Option
Bush administration signals intent to invoke the obscure state secrets privilege in order to stop the EFF lawsuit against AT&T, (previously discussed here) for providing the NSA direct access all 312 terabytes of its customers' telephone and internet traffic since 2001, (including those Good Vibrations charges you racked up).
In a nutshell, according to legal experts, invoking the privilege kills the judicial process dead: the courthouse doors are closed, and there's nothing but grownup stuff to see here; move along, kids.
AT&T-->NSA. WTF? -EFF
EFF Accuses AT&T of diverting internet traffic to NSA. "More than just threatening individuals' privacy, AT&T's apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans' Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself. We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now."
More details from the EFF.
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