This blog post was drafted with help from former EFF Legal Intern Emma Hagemann. Massachusetts’ highest court has upheld the collection of mass cell tower data, despite recognizing that this data not only provides investigators with “highly personal and private”… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘Locational Privacy’
Data Brokers and True the Vote are the Real Villains of "2000 Mules" Movie
2000 Mules is a movie which claims to expose election fraud with phone app location data. While these claims have already been thoroughly debunked, the movie also deserves condemnation for performing wildly invasive research on thousands of people’s location data… Read More ›
How to Disable Ad ID Tracking on iOS and Android, and Why You Should Do It Now
The ad identifier – aka “IDFA” on iOS, or “AAID” on Android – is the key that enables most third-party tracking on mobile devices. Disabling it will make it substantially harder for advertisers and data brokers to track and profile… Read More ›
SafeGraph’s Disingenuous Claims About Location Data Mask a Dangerous Industry
On Tuesday, Motherboard reported that data broker SafeGraph was selling location information “related to visits to clinics that provide abortions including Planned Parenthood facilities.” This included where people came from and where they went afterwards. In response, SafeGraph agreed to… Read More ›
An EFF Investigation: Mystery GPS Tracker On A Supporter’s Car
Being able to accurately determine your location anywhere on the planet is a useful technological trick. But when tracking isn’t done by you, but to you—without your knowledge or consent—it’s a violation of your privacy. That’s why at EFF we’ve… Read More ›
Another Tracker Scanning App Highlights the Need for a Better Way to Protect Victims From Digital Stalking
First came tracking devices like Tiles and AirTags, marketed as clever, button-sized Bluetooth-enabled gizmos that can find your lost backpack. Then, after bad actors started using the devices to stalk or follow people, came scanning apps to help victims find… Read More ›
Federal Court in Virginia Holds Geofence Warrant Violates Constitution
In the first order of its kind, a federal district court has held that a warrant used to identify all devices in the area of a bank robbery, including the defendant’s, “plainly violates the rights enshrined in [the Fourth] Amendment.”… Read More ›
EFF Urges FTC to Investigate Stalkerware App Network Subject of TechCrunch Report
This post was written by EFF Media Relations Specialist Malaika Fraley. Private messages, voicemails, internet browsing, passwords and location data—this is the type of private phone data that is being monitored in real time, unbeknownst to hundreds of thousands of… Read More ›
Court Orders Authorizing Law Enforcement To Track People’s Air Travels In Real Time Must Be Made Public
The public should get to see whether a court that authorized the FBI to track someone’s air travels in real time for six months also analyzed whether the surveillance implicated the Fourth Amendment, EFF argued in a brief filed this… Read More ›
In 2021, the Police Took a Page Out of the NSA’s Playbook: 2021 in Review
With increasing frequency, law enforcement has been using unconstitutional, suspicionless digital dragnet searches in an attempt to identify unknown suspects in criminal cases. Whether these searches are for everyone who was near a building where a crime occurred or who… Read More ›