Privacy & digital rights

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• EElectronic Frontier Foundation2026-10-14✓ Read

  We’re Asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to End Warrantless ALPR Searches

  Today, EFF joined the ACLU of Wisconsin in filing a petition to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, asking it to rule that the state’s constitution requires a warrant for retrospective searches of ALPR databases used by law enforcement in four cities: Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, and Green Bay. We represent a religious organization, the Wisconsin Council of Churches, as well as an individual pastor in Green Bay.

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• EElectronic Frontier Foundation2026-10-14✓ Read

  DHS Inspector General Finds That TSA is Not Properly Safeguarding Passenger Facial Recognition Data

  EFF legal intern Gabrielle Ladun was the principal author of this post.  The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) has published a summary of findings from its audit of the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) facial recognition technology. While the detailed findings are classified, the summary states that the OIG’s audit uncovered a “significant weakness” in the technology’s ability to protect the privacy of passenger data.

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• EElectronic Frontier Foundation2026-10-14✓ Read

  🗣 A Victory for Freedom of Speech Online | EFFector 38.18

  No one should have to think twice before criticizing the government online. But a mass surveillance program known as "Catch and Revoke" was created to make millions do just that. EFF and other defenders of free speech are fighting back. In our latest EFFector newsletter, we're talking about a key court win for our lawsuit challenging this unconstitutional surveillance program.

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• EElectronic Frontier Foundation2026-10-13✓ Read

  As Federal Court Rules ALPRs are Mass Surveillance, EFF Gets Disappointing Ruling

  In an extremely disappointing ruling, a California trial court dismissed SIREN v. San Jose, our case challenging the city of San Jose’s warrantless searches of its vast stores of Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) data. EFF and the ACLU of Northern California represent SIREN and CAIR California, two non-profits that serve San Jose residents, in this case.

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• EElectronic Frontier Foundation2026-10-13✓ Read

  Privacy’s Defenders Podcast: No Privacy Without Encryption

  When we communicate online today – from your personal emails and DMs to secure international commerce – we usually do so with encryption. Encryption converts readable data into unreadable gibberish to protect our privacy and security. This didn’t just happen organically. Three decades ago, the U.S government treated encryption like a weapon, and it took some unlikely heroes to set it free: a grad student, a junior lawyer, and a fledgling digital rights group who sued the federal government.

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• EElectronic Frontier Foundation2026-10-09✓ Read

  Resisting the Menace of Federal Data Consolidation

  In the past two years, the federal government has unlawfully consolidated data exposing our private information. This consolidation has been chaotic but generally came in three rolling waves: It started with DOGE, moved to agency-to-agency data sharing with ICE, and then attempted data-driven

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• EElectronic Frontier Foundation2026-10-09✓ Read

  Organizing in the Town at Oakland Tech Week

  EFF was thrilled to join organizers, advocates, and activists in the East Bay for the second annual Oakland Tech Week last week. We are grateful to our friends at MediaJustice and Upturn for inviting us co-present this all-day event, “Building Beyond Big Tech: Organizing Oakland’s Future”, on Sept. 30.  The event, hosted by the Kapor Center in downtown Oakland, offered a unique chance to spend time with people across The Town and the Bay Area working to create a better future for everyone.

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• EElectronic Frontier Foundation2026-10-09✓ Read

  Turkish Crackdown On LGBTQ+ Organizations Threatens Freedom of Expression and Association

  EFF strongly condemns Turkey’s state-led discriminatory, oppressive attacks on feminist and LGBTQ+ organisations, media platforms, student groups, and rights defenders and activists within the country. Since mid-September, access to the websites and social media accounts of a dozen organizations

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• EElectronic Frontier Foundation2026-10-08✓ Read

  When No ID Means No Internet: Age Verification and the Right to Access Information

  This post was co-authored by Sheila B. Lalwani, a doctorate student and recent COMPASS Fellow hosted by EFF.Age verification proposals are often presented as a simple tradeoff: sacrifice a little privacy to better safeguard children online. But that framing overlooks a more fundamental question.

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• EElectronic Frontier Foundation2026-10-08✓ Read

  It’s DAF Day! Wait...What’s a DAF?

  Decisions about your privacy, encryption, artificial intelligence, online speech, and digital security will determine whether technology empowers people or concentrates power in the hands of a few. A grant from your DAF to EFF supports our mission to ensure that technology remains a force for freedom, innovation, and human rights.

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• EElectronic Frontier Foundation2026-10-02✓ Read

  Site-Blocking Will Not Defend IP, No Matter the Bill’s Name

  There has been a raft of site-blocking bills in the latest Congress, and the latest is called the “Deterring Extraterritorial Foreign Exploitation of Networks Damaging Intellectual Property” aka the “DEFEND IP Act.” The problem is that instead of “defending IP,” this bill will incentivize censorship, overblocking, and bad faith attempts to block access to a website. DEFEND IP Act, and all of these site-blocking proposals, threaten the open web.

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• EElectronic Frontier Foundation2026-10-02✓ Read

  Congress Has Another Site-Blocking Bill, And This One Targets VPNs

  Congress is taking another run at site-blocking, a deeply flawed concept that would undermine basic internet infrastructure. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) has introduced the American Copyright Protection Act (ACPA), H.R. 10364, a bill that would give copyright owners a new legal tool to block Americans’ access to foreign websites accused of copyright infringement.

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• EElectronic Frontier Foundation2026-10-02✓ Read

  Victory! Court Rejects Government Effort to Dismiss Social Media Surveillance Lawsuit

  Judge Allows Social Media Surveillance Lawsuit Against Trump Administration to Move ForwardNEW YORK — A lawsuit filed by three labor unions against the Departments of State and Homeland Security for their viewpoint-based surveillance and suppression of protected expression online can move forward, a federal judge ruled yesterday.

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• EElectronic Frontier Foundation2026-10-02✓ Read

  Ola Bini Ordered to Leave Ecuador Under Obscure Accusations

  In a new blow to Ola Bini’s legal guarantees, Ecuadorean authorities retained the free software developer and security expert yesterday in Quito and ordered his immediate deportation from the country. He is barred from returning to Ecuador for 10 years. According to information released by his

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• EElectronic Frontier Foundation2026-10-01✓ Read

  We Demand More Information on How Marin Cops Illegally Shared Flock ALPR Data

  The Marin County Sheriff’s Office is the latest California law enforcement agency to get caught sharing automated license plate reader (ALPR) data from their Flock Safety system with out-of-state and federal agencies. EFF and the ACLU of Northern California are calling them out for this direct violation of California law, which has put every driver in the county at risk and is especially dangerous for immigrants, abortion seekers, and other targets of the federal government.

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• EElectronic Frontier Foundation2026-10-01✓ Read

  Challengers Approach: Third Party App Stores Arrive to Google Play

  If you are an Android user, you may have noticed it already: Google has begun allowing rival, third-party app stores to be distributed through the Google Play Store. And if you are a developer, you may have noticed new options for billing and distributing your apps. For years, Epic Games, maker of

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• EElectronic Frontier Foundation2026-10-01✓ Read

  Court Agrees with EFF: Utah’s VPN Law Demands a Technical Impossibility

  In a win for digital rights, a federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction blocking Utah’s SB 73, the state’s draconian anti-VPN age verification law. The decision comes as EFF submitted our comments to the Utah Department of Commerce, detailing how forcing platforms to detect and block privacy-preserving tools undermines user privacy and security worldwide while demanding the impossible.

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