Favorite When a company makes a promise, the public should be able to rely on it. Today, nearly every person in the U.S. is a customer of either Amazon or Google—and many of us are customers of both technology giants. Both of these companies have made public promises that they will ensure their technologies are…
All posts tagged Surveillance and Human Rights
Germany Rushes to Expand Biometric Surveillance
Favorite Germany is a leader in privacy and data protection, with many Germans being particularly sensitive to the processing of their personal data – owing to the country’s totalitarian history and the role of surveillance in both Nazi Germany and East Germany. So, it is disappointing that the German government is trying to push through…
Human Rights Claims Against Cisco Can Move Forward (Again)
Favorite Google and Amazon – You Should Take Note of Your Own Aiding and Abetting Risk EFF has long pushed companies that provide powerful surveillance tools to governments to take affirmative steps to avoid aiding and abetting human rights abuses. We have also worked to ensure they face consequences when they do not. Last week,…
EFF to Ninth Circuit: Don’t Shield Foreign Spyware Company from Human Rights Accountability in U.S. Court
Favorite Legal intern Danya Hajjaji was the lead author of this post. EFF filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit supporting a group of journalists in their lawsuit against Israeli spyware company NSO Group. In our amicus brief backing the plaintiffs’ appeal, we argued that victims of human…
Broad Scope Will Authorize Cross-Border Spying for Acts of Expression: Why You Should Oppose Draft UN Cybercrime Treaty
Favorite The draft UN Cybercrime Convention was supposed to help tackle serious online threats like ransomware attacks, which cost billions of dollars in damages every year. But, after two and a half years of negotiations among UN Member States, the draft treaty’s broad rules for collecting evidence across borders may turn it into a tool…
Security Researchers and Journalists at Risk: Why You Should Hate the Proposed UN Cybercrime Treaty
Favorite The proposed UN Cybercrime Treaty puts security researchers and journalists at risk of being criminally prosecuted for their work identifying and reporting computer system vulnerabilities, work that keeps the digital ecosystem safer for everyone. The proposed text fails to exempt security research from the expansive scope of its cybercrime prohibitions, and does not provide…
Calls Mount—from Principal UN Human Rights Official, Business, and Tech Groups—To Address Dangerous Flaws in Draft UN Surveillance Treaty
Favorite As UN delegates sat down in New York this week to restart negotiations, calls are mounting from all corners—from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to Big Tech—to add critical human rights protections to, and fix other major flaws in, the proposed UN surveillance treaty, which as written will jeopardize fundamental…
Car Makers Shouldn’t Be Selling Our Driving History to Data Brokers and Insurance Companies
Favorite You accelerated multiple times on your way to Yosemite for the weekend. You braked when driving to a doctor appointment. If your car has internet capabilities, GPS tracking or OnStar, your car knows your driving history. And now we know: your car insurance carrier might know it, too. In a recent New York Times…
Shots Fired: Congressional Letter Questions DHS Funding of ShotSpotter
Favorite There is a growing pile of evidence that cities should drop Shotspotter, the notorious surveillance system that purportedly uses acoustic sensors to detect gunshots, due to its inaccuracies and the danger it creates in communities where it’s installed. In yet another blow to the product and the surveillance company behind it—SoundThinking—Congress members have sent…
EFF to Court: Electronic Ankle Monitoring Is Bad. Sharing That Data Is Even Worse.
Favorite The government violates the privacy rights of individuals on pretrial release when it continuously tracks, retains, and shares their location, EFF explained in a friend-of-the-court brief filed in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In the case, Simon v. San Francisco, individuals on pretrial release are challenging the City and County of San Francisco’s…