COVID-19, and containment efforts that rely on personal data, are shining a spotlight on a longstanding problem: our nation’s lack of sufficient laws to protect data privacy. Two bills before Congress attempt to solve this problem as to COVID-19 data…. Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘COVID-19 and Digital Rights’
International Proposals for Warrantless Location Surveillance To Fight COVID-19
Time and again, governments have used crises to expand their power, and often their intrusion into citizens’ lives. The COVID-19 pandemic has seen this pattern play out on a huge scale. From deploying drones or ankle monitors to enforce quarantine… Read More ›
New Low for a Bad Patent: Patent Troll Sues Ventilator Company
Patent trolls don’t care much about innovation. Their lawsuits and threats are attempts at rent-seeking; they’re demanding money from people who make, use, or sell technology just for doing what they were already doing—for crossing the proverbial “bridge” that the… Read More ›
No to California Bill on Verified Credentials of COVID-19 Test Results
EFF opposes a California bill, A.B. 2004, that would authorize the issuers of COVID-19 test results to do so with digital verifiable credentials. This bill would take us a step towards national digital identification, create information security risks, exacerbate social… Read More ›
COVID-19 Patients’ Right to Privacy Against Quarantine Surveillance
Governments around the world are using surveillance technologies to monitor whether COVID-19 patients are complying with instructions to quarantine at home. These include GPS ankle shackles, phone apps that track location, and phone apps that require patients to periodically take… Read More ›
The House Passed Legislation to Keep People Online Despite COVID-19, And the Senate Should Follow
The just-passed HEROES Act is a massive relief package designed to alleviate the harm of a massive crisis. In it is the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, which would make it easier for Americans affected by COVID-19 to stay connected to… Read More ›
House Legislation Guarantees Internet Access for Those Affected by COVID-19
The House of Representatives has introduced new COVID-19 emergency response legislation to address the largest public health and economic calamity the United States has faced in generations. Like the crisis it is meant to address, the bill is massive. One… Read More ›
Governments Shouldn’t Use “Centralized” Proximity Tracking Technology
Companies and governments across the world are building and deploying a dizzying number of systems and apps to fight COVID-19. Many groups have converged on using Bluetooth-assisted proximity tracking for the purpose of exposure notification. Even so, there are many… Read More ›
The Santa Clara Principles During COVID-19: More Important Than Ever
This blog post with co-authored with Spandana Singh of New America’s Open Technology Institute, a Santa Clara Principles partner. As COVID-19 has spread around the world and online platforms have scrambled to adjust their operations and workforces to a new… Read More ›
Understandable But Nonetheless Troubling: Facebook's Ban On In-Person Events
We’re closely watching how Facebook enforces its newly-announced policy that limits speech by users who are organizing public protests. This policy is deserving of special attention since it effects free expression on two levels: the organization of the protest itself,… Read More ›