Favorite Topics Include National Security Surveillance, Consumer Privacy, AI, Cybersecurity, and Many More SAN FRANCISCO—Standing up for technology users in 2025 and beyond requires careful thinking about government surveillance, consumer privacy, artificial intelligence, and encryption, among other topics. To help incoming federal policymakers think through these key issues, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has shared…
Nearly $1 Trillion: The Staggering Combined Net Worth Cheering at Trump’s Inauguration
Favorite President Donald Trump was sworn into office at the U.S. Capitol rotunda on Monday in an unusually quiet affair for a presidential inauguration. Gone were the roaring crowds of years past, which had reached into the millions at their height. In their place was a small inner circle of some of the wealthiest and…
Washington’s TikTok Ban Hypocrisy: Internet Censorship Is Good, Now
Favorite Tens of millions of people face the loss of an internet service they use to consume information from around the world. Their government says the block is for their own good, necessitated by threats to national security. The internet service is dangerous, they say, a tool of foreign meddling and a menace to the…
VPNs Are Not a Solution to Age Verification Laws
Favorite VPNs are having a moment. On January 1st, Florida joined 18 other states in implementing an age verification law that burdens Floridians’ access to sites that host adult content, including pornography websites like Pornhub. In protest to these laws, PornHub blocked access to users in Florida. Residents in the “Free State of Florida” have…
Mad at Meta? Don't Let Them Collect and Monetize Your Personal Data
Favorite If you’re fed up with Meta right now, you’re not alone. Google searches for deleting Facebook and Instagram spiked last week after Meta announced its latest policy changes. These changes, seemingly designed to appease the incoming Trump administration, included loosening Meta’s hate speech policy to allow for the targeting of LGBTQ+ people and immigrants. …
EFF Statement on U.S. Supreme Court's Decision to Uphold TikTok Ban
Favorite We are deeply disappointed that the Court failed to require the strict First Amendment scrutiny required in a case like this, which would’ve led to the inescapable conclusion that the government’s desire to prevent potential future harm had to be rejected as infringing millions of Americans’ constitutionally protected free speech. We are disappointed to…
MIT Shut Down Internal Grant Database After It Was Used to Research School’s Israel Ties
Favorite The Israeli Ministry of Defense has poured more than $3.7 million into developing warfare technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 2015, according to a recent report from students and faculty organizing against the war in Gaza. The findings come as MIT administrators are under growing pressure for censuring student publications criticizing MIT’s…
Systemic Risk Reporting: A System in Crisis?
Favorite The first batch of reports assessing the so called “systemic risks” posed by the largest online platforms are in. These reports are a result of the Digital Services Act (DSA), Europe’s new law regulating platforms like Google, Meta, Amazon or X, and have been eagerly awaited by civil society groups across the globe. In…
Trump Decried This Law as a Deep State Spy Weapon. His Nominees Sure Seem to Love It.
Favorite President-elect Donald Trump has railed against the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as a tool of the “deep state,” but his nominees for key positions keep endorsing the most controversial section of the spying law during their Senate confirmation hearings. CIA director nominee John Ratcliffe on Wednesday voiced support for Section 702 of the law,…
It’s 2025, we’re ready for more Open Source!
Favorite Members Newsletter – January 2025 Thank you for making 2024 the most generous year of all time: We had a record positive year across all the possible indicators. We’re energized by your personal donations and eager to continue working with philanthropic organizations to continue supporting the whole Open Source ecosystem. Despite some churn in…