VPNs Are Not a Solution to Age Verification Laws

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…

Hack of Age Verification Company Shows Privacy Danger of Social Media Laws

Favorite We’ve said it before: online age verification is incompatible with privacy. Companies responsible for storing or processing sensitive documents like drivers’ licenses are likely to encounter data breaches, potentially exposing not only personal data like users’ government-issued ID, but also information about the sites that they visit.  This threat is not hypothetical. This morning,…

EFF Urges Supreme Court to Reject Texas’ Speech-Chilling Age Verification Law

Favorite A Texas age verification law will rob people of anonymity online, chill access to speech for privacy- and security-minded internet users, and entirely block some adults from accessing constitutionally protected online content, EFF argued in a brief filed with the Supreme Court last week. EFF joined the Woodhull Freedom Foundation in filing a friend-of-the-court…

Don’t Fall for the Latest Changes to the Dangerous Kids Online Safety Act 

Favorite The authors of the dangerous Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) unveiled an amended version this week, but it’s still an unconstitutional censorship bill that continues to empower state officials to target services and online content they do not like. We are asking everyone reading this to oppose this latest version, and to demand that…

States Attack Young People’s Constitutional Right to Use Social Media: 2023 Year in Review

Favorite Legislatures in more than half of the country targeted young people’s use of social media this year, with many of the proposals blocking adults’ ability to access the same sites. State representatives introduced dozens of bills that would limit young people’s use of some of the most popular sites and apps, either by requiring…

Fighting For Your Digital Rights Across the Country: Year in Review 2023

Favorite EFF works every year to improve policy in ways that protect your digital rights in states across the country. Thanks to the messages of hundreds of EFF members across the country, we’ve spoken up for digital rights this year from Sacramento to Augusta. Much of EFF’s state legislative work has, historically, been in our…

Protecting Kids on Social Media Act: Amended and Still Problematic

Favorite Senators who believe that children and teens must be shielded from social media have updated the problematic Protecting Kids on Social Media Act, though it remains an unconstitutional bill that replaces parents’ choices about what their children can do online with a government-mandated prohibition.   As we wrote in August, the original bill (S. 1291)…

Colorado Supreme Court Upholds Keyword Search Warrant

Favorite Today, the Colorado Supreme Court became the first state supreme court in the country to address the constitutionality of a keyword warrant—a digital dragnet tool that allows law enforcement to identify everyone who searched the internet for a specific term or phrase. In a weak and ultimately confusing opinion, the court upheld the warrant,…

The Protecting Kids on Social Media Act is A Terrible Alternative to KOSA

Favorite A new bill sponsored by Sen. Schatz (D-HI), Sen. Cotton (R-AR), Sen. Murphy (D-CT), and Sen. Britt (R-AL) would combine some of the worst elements of various social media bills aimed at “protecting the children” into a single law. It contains elements of the dangerous Kids Online Safety Act as well as several ideas pulled from state…

Tornado Cash Civil Decision Limits the Reach of the Treasury Department’s Actions while Skirting a Full First Amendment Analysis

Favorite A District Court recently considered a civil claim that the Treasury Department overstepped when it listed Tornado Cash on the U.S. sanctions list. This claim took some steps, if not enough, to address EFF’s concerns about coders rights.   In the case, Van Loon v Department of the Treasury, EFF argued in an amicus…