The NO FAKES Act Could Silence Satire, Commentary, And News
The NO FAKES Act is supposed to target harmful AI-generated impersonations. But in reality, it will make it easier to suppress commentary, satire, and other lawful speech. That's…
The Free and Open Web Is Under Attack at the IETF
The ability to access publicly available information using automated tools is a central value and benefit of a free and open internet. Automated access—often called crawling or…
EFFecting Change: LGBTQ+ Solidarity Against the Tide of Surveillance
LGBTQ+ communities are facing an escalating wave of censorship and targeted surveillance, but we can push back through mutual solidarity. Join us live to learn how safer virtual…
Onward, Friends
After 26 years, today is my last day at EFF. It's been a terrific and wild ride — the organization has grown from a tiny band of fighty people trying to plant a flag for freedom…
Victory! 702 has Expired!
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act lets US intelligence agencies collect communications from foreigners abroad without a warrant, and routinely sweeps in…
Yes to California's Bill to Ban Surveillance Pricing
Corporations harvest and monetize ever-growing amounts of our personal data, such as our browsing history and physical location . One bitter fruit of this poisonous tree is known…
‘News’ Site Keeps Hallucinating EFF Staffers
What do EFF staffers Sarah Chen , Javier Morales , Caitlin Chin , Emma Rodriguez , and Mikko Kopponen have in common? For one thing, they don’t exist. For another, all have been…
LGBT Q&A: We’re Back With Season 2!
Last June during Pride, we launched a new initiative— LGBT Q&A —where we answered your most pressing queer-related digital rights questions on EFF’s Instagram and TikTok accounts.…
Shut Down Turnkey Totalitarianism
UPDATE: EFF's spring membership drive ends this week! Join us today to support privacy and free expression for all. William Binney, the NSA surveillance…
How and Why to Fight Back Against Social Media Bans
Several U.S. states are pushing to ban young people from social media entirely. This marks the latest wave of censorship bills masquerading as “children’s online safety” measures,…
Welcome New EFF Executive Director Nicole Ozer
EFF welcomes our new Executive Director Nicole Ozer today! Nicole is a legal expert on privacy and surveillance, artificial intelligence, and digital speech who previously served…
Broken Promises: RIP Instagram’s End-to-End Encrypted DMs
Last week, Instagram ended its opt-in, and therefore rarely used, end-to-end encryption feature . Years after publicly promising to provide the privacy protections of end-to-end…
Move Fast, Surveil Things
Update, June 8, 2026: Following widespread public scrutiny and WIRED’s critical reporting, Meta has stripped the unactivated facial recognition code from its latest Meta AI app…
Victory! End-to-End Encrypted RCS Comes to Apple and Android Chats
This week, Apple released iOS 26.5 , an update that supports end-to-end encryption for Rich Communication Services (RCS), meaning conversations between Android and iPhone will…
Help EFF Solve an Issue That's Bigger than Creepy Ads
Millions of people around the world use EFF's Privacy Badger . This browser extension blocks the hidden trackers that twist your web browsing into a commodity for Big Tech,…
The 702 Ultimatum: Warrant Requirement or Bust
For months now, Congress has been kicking the ball down the road— temporarily postponing the expiration of the mass surveillance authority Section 702 of FISA in hopes that some…
🔊 Mass Surveillance for… Loud Music? | EFFector 38.11
Across the country, surveillance companies have spun a vast web of tens of thousands of license plate cameras. The people selling this tech want you to believe that it's for your…
VICTORY: Meta Strips Facial Recognition Code From Smart Glasses App After Public Outcry
Just days after a damning WIRED report exposed that Meta had quietly embedded facial recognition technology (FRT) code into millions of phones, the tech giant has quietly…
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: CA's AB 1856 Exempts Open Source But Expands Age-Gating
After public outrage, California lawmakers are moving closer to exempting open-source operating systems from the sweeping age-bracketing regime mandated by last year’s Digital Age…
Open Records Laws Reveal ALPRs’ Sprawling Surveillance. Now States Want to Block What the Public Sees.
Reporters, community advocates, EFF, and others have used public records laws to reveal and counteract abuse, misuse, and fraudulent narratives around how law enforcement agencies…
Pulte Appointment Underscores Need to Reform Section 702 Spying
President Trump’s highly politicized appointment of an entirely unqualified acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) underscores why the government’s warrantless mass spying…
The Science is Not Settled: How Weak Evidence is Fueling a National Push to Ban Social Media for Youth
As statehouses ramp up for 2026, we’re seeing a familiar and concerning trend of lawmakers rushing to regulate the internet based on shockingly shaky science. From the California…
🔒 A Win for Encrypted Messaging | EFFector 38.10
When it comes to keeping our texts, chats, and other digital messages safe from prying eyes, we have a powerful tool: end-to-end encryption. Used correctly, end-to-end encryption…
The SECURE Data Act is Not a Serious Piece of Privacy Legislation
The federal SECURE Data Act is not a serious consumer privacy bill, and its provisions—if enacted—would be a retreat from already insufficient state protections. Republicans on…
Age Verification is a Privacy Nightmare
In the rush to block young people from certain parts of the internet, lawmakers are creating a privacy and security nightmare for everyone. This scenario is already playing out…
EFF Stands in Solidarity With RightsCon and the Global Digital Rights Community
When governments shut down spaces for dialogue, dissent, and collective organizing, the damage extends far beyond a single event. The abrupt cancellation of RightsCon 2026—the…
Your Privacy Shouldn't Be A Corporate Decision
“ We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.…
We're Fighting Mass Surveillance Tech—and Winning
EFF is on the front lines of the fight against tech-enabled tyranny, but we aren't alone. Our team depends on your help to fight back against the surveillance state. JOIN EFF…
👎 California's Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Social Media Ban | EFFector 38.9
We'd all like the internet to be a better place—for kids and adults alike. But in the name of online safety, governments around the world are racing to impose a dangerous new…
Canada’s Bill C-22 Is a Repackaged Version of Last Year’s Surveillance Nightmare
Last year, the Canadian government pushed Bill C-2 , which would erode Canadian digital rights in the name of “border security.” The bill was so bad it didn’t even make it to…
We Must Not Normalize Digital Surveillance Abuses. EFF’s New Guide Underlines Concrete Steps to Fight Back.
Poor accountability, feeble control mechanisms, and insufficient legal frameworks have led to systematic human rights violations in the Americas, with no consistent remedy or…
Utah’s New Law Targeting VPNs Goes Into Effect May 6th
Update, May 11, 2026: Utah has agreed to not enforce the VPN law until Sept. 3, 2026 after Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub.com, challenged the law in court. For the last…
A Bridge to Somewhere: How to Link Your Mastodon, Bluesky, or Other Federated Accounts
One of the central promises of open social media services is interoperability—the idea that wherever you personally decide to post doesn’t require others to be there just to…
Free Signal Guide
EFF friend Guy Kawasaki* has written a book: Everybody Has Something to Hide: Why and How to Use Signal to Preserve Your Privacy, Security, and Well-Being. This guide is now…
More License Plate Reader Mission Creep: School Residency Verification, Background Checks, and Noise Complaints
An EFF analysis of millions of searches of Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) data by police has uncovered a troubling pattern: in the absence of a warrant…
Congress Just Rushed Through a Disastrous Copyright Office Overhaul
In a voice vote earlier this week, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 6028 , the “Legislative Branch Agencies Clarification Act.” The legislation is presented as a technical…
EFF Testifies to Congress on Protecting Americans’ Rights from Government AI
Governments must not adopt emerging and powerful AI technologies without also adopting strong and clear safeguards to protect Constitutional rights, EFF Senior Policy Analyst Dr.…
EFF Submission to UK Consultation on Digital ID
Last September, the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced plans to introduce a new digital ID scheme in the country. The scheme aims to make it easier for people…
EFF to Fourth Circuit: Electronic Device Searches at the Border Require a Warrant
EFF, along with the national ACLU, the ACLU affiliates in Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)…
EFF Launches New Offline Campaign for Saudi Wikipedian Osama Khalid
Osama Khalid was just twelve years old when he began contributing to Wikipedia Arabic. In the height of the blogging era, he became a prolific blogger, publishing writings on his…
California’s AB 412 Still Demands Developers Do The Impossible
California lawmakers are again considering A.B. 412 , a bill that would require AI developers to identify and disclose copyrighted works used to train generative AI systems. The…
LGBT Q&A Season 1 Recap: Staying Safer Online
Last year during LGBTQ+ Pride month, we launched an LGBT Q&A where we answered your most pressing digital rights questions on EFF’s Instagram and TikTok accounts. Ahead of LGBT…
Congress Narrowed the GUARD Act, But Serious Problems Remain
Following criticism, lawmakers have narrowed the GUARD Act , a bill aimed at restricting minors’ access to certain AI systems. The earlier version could have applied broadly to…
Milestone 1.0.0 Release of APK Downloader `apkeep` Powers Research on Android Apps
Last week, we released apkeep version 1.0.0 , the latest edition of our command-line Android package downloading software. Rather than indicating major changes for the project,…
Internet Age Gates Are a Growing Global Threat
The internet is an essential resource for young people and adults to access information, explore community, and find themselves—both inside countries and across continents. Yet…
Microsoft Took a Step Toward Human Rights Accountability. Google and Amazon (and Others) Should Pay Attention!
For years, civil society organizations, workers, journalists, and human rights experts have warned that major technology companies risk enabling grave human rights abuses when…
A Hackers Guide to Circumventing Internet Shutdowns
Internet shutdowns are devastating for human rights . When people are disconnected from the internet and digital services, it impacts all aspects of their life—from accessing…
EFF and 18 Organizations Urge UK Policymakers to Prioritize Addressing the Roots of Online Harm
EFF joins 18 organizations in writing a letter to UK policymakers urging them to address the root causes of online harm—rather than undermining the open web through blunt…
We Updated Our Privacy Policy. Here's What Changed and Why.
We recently updated our privacy policy for the first time since 2022. Most of the changes are clarifications, reorganizations, and improvements in transparency, particularly…
Enshittification Merch That Actually Fights Enshittification
Enshittification isn't just a sweary word to describe the accelerating decay of the online platforms, apps, and services that we rely on. It's a framework for understanding the…
Tell Congress: Just Say No to NO FAKES
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to consider and vote on the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act (NO FAKES). Instead of targeting the real privacy…
Getting Digital Fairness Right: EFF's Recommendations for the EU's Digital Fairness Act
Digital Fairness in the EU The next few years will be decisive for EU digital policymaking. With major laws like the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, and the AI Act…
Cheers to the Winners of EFF’s 18th Annual Cyberlaw Trivia Night!
On a warm June evening in San Francisco, attorneys and other legally-minded friends of EFF gathered for our 18th Annual Cyberlaw Trivia Night, an annual test of tech-related legal…