Following the revelation in March that Google had secretly signed an agreement with the Pentagon to provide cutting edge artificial intelligence technology for drone warfare, the company faced an internal revolt. About a dozen Google employees have resigned in protest and thousands have signed a… Read More ›
Archive for May 2018
Distant Relatives Aren’t The Only Ones Looking for Your DNA on Geneology Sites—Law Enforcement Is Looking, Too
A version of this article first appeared in the Daily Journal on May 22, 2018. When you share your DNA with a private genealogy database, it’s not only potential relatives searching for matches. The Golden State Killer case shows that… Read More ›
A Constitutional Conundrum That’s Not Going Away—Unequal Access to Social Media Posts
Among the many privacy challenges posed by social media, one has flown largely under the radar: balancing defendants’ due process rights to access exculpatory information against the crucial privacy protections of the Stored Communications Act (SCA). Here’s the problem: prosecutors… Read More ›
Facebook, Instagram Lack Transparency on Government-Ordered Content Removal Amid Unprecedented Demands to Censor User Speech, EFF’s Annual Who Has Your Back Report Shows
Apple App Store, Google Play Store, YouTube Among the Best at Informing Users About the Number of, and Reasons for, Content Takedowns San Francisco, California—Facing increased demands from governments to remove user content, purportedly in the name of combating hate… Read More ›
The FBI’s Use of Informants Is Full of Problems, but What Happened in “Spygate” Isn’t One of Them
The #Spygate conspiracy theory started, as so many things do these days, with a tweet from President Donald Trump: “Apparently the DOJ put a Spy in the Trump Campaign. This has never been done before and by any means necessary,… Read More ›
There’s Plenty of Evidence That Trump Sought to Block the Russia Probe, but It Will Take More Than That to Bring Him Down
One of the most important things to understand about Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating the Trump-Russia case, is that he helped nail New York mob boss John Gotti, the gangster known as the “Teflon Don.” One of the most… Read More ›
Privacy International Protects Partners With Its Onion Address
Privacy International Protects Partners With Its Onion Address steph May 29, 2018 This guest post is written by Ed Geraghty, Technologist, Privacy International. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with [their] privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to… Read More ›
EFF Presents Cory Doctorow’s Science Fiction Story About Our Jailbreaking Petition to the Copyright Office
Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA 1201) makes it illegal to get around any sort of lock that controls access to copyrighted material. Getting exemptions to that prohibitions is a long, complicated process that often results in… Read More ›
Author Trademarks the Word ‘Cocky,’ Earns the Ire of Romance Writers Everywhere
It’s a bad idea to come after romance authors’ favorite double entendres. Unfortunately, Faleena Hopkins, holder of a trademark on the word “cocky” and a shaky understanding of trademark law, fired a bunch of shots and not only missed the… Read More ›
An Advocacy Group for Startups Is Funded by Google and Run by Ex-Googlers
A Washington-based advocacy organization that purports to be a voice for startup tech companies is actually a sock puppet for Google, according to a report released Wednesday that details numerous links between the two. According to the report, startup advocacy group… Read More ›