Two members of the New York City Council introduced a bill on Wednesday, March 1 to enact long overdue transparency rules for the NYPD’s procurement and deployment of electronic surveillance technology. It is the latest in a series of similar… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘Transparency’
California Supreme Court Rules Public Records Act Covers Government Communications on Private Email and Personal Devices
In a major victory for transparency, the California Supreme Court ruled today that when government officials conduct public business using private email or personal devices, those communications may be subject to disclosure under the California Public Record Acts (CPRA). In… Read More ›
Documents About Financial Censorship Under Operation Choke Point Show Concern from Congress, Provide Few Answers
EFF recently received dozens of pages of documents in response to a FOIA request we submitted about Operation Choke Point, a Department of Justice project to pressure banks and financial institutions into cutting off service to certain businesses. Unfortunately, the… Read More ›
Still Looking for a New Year’s Resolution? Join EFF to FOIA Early and Often
An Updated Transparency Law Means New Language For Your Records Requests As the sun sets on the Obama presidency, let’s make sure the light shines brightly anew on the incoming administration. In 2016, Congress passed the biggest update to the… Read More ›
Chipping Away at National Security Letters: 2016 in Review
When Congress passed the USA FREEDOM Act in 2015 as part of the country’s reckoning with the post-9/11 surveillance state, comparably little attention was paid to amendments the law made to national security letters (NSLs). At the time, EFF said… Read More ›
Congress Gives FOIA a Modest but Important Update For Its 50th Birthday: 2016 in Review
Year after year, federal agencies worked behind the scenes to thwart any attempt to reform the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In 2016, Congress finally came through and successfully amended the 50-year-old transparency statute with the goal of improving our… Read More ›
Top 5 Threats to Transparency: 2016 in Review
As we approach the end of 2016, it’s disturbing to note the wide variety of ways in which government transparency has languished—even under an administration rhetorically committed to it. With the next administration poised to even further extend executive secrecy,… Read More ›
How Tech Companies Can Fight for Their Users in the Courts
There are a lot of political uncertainties around the incoming Trump administration, but the threats to civil liberties are potentially greater than ever. President Obama failed to rein in the surveillance state, and Mr. Trump has nominated cabinet members like… Read More ›
Shareholders Demand Transparency for AT&T’s Hemisphere Phone Records Spying Program
A group of investors in AT&T have had it with the phone company’s collaboration with law enforcement through the Hemisphere program, in which the company facilitates police access to trillions of phone records. At the spring shareholder conference, Zevin Asset… Read More ›
Fighting NSL Gag Orders, With Help From Our Friends at CREDO and Internet Archive
Thanks to our clients and friends at CREDO Mobile and the Internet Archive, EFF was able to shine a rare light on national security letters (NSLs) this week. The FBI uses NSLs to force Internet providers and telecommunications companies to… Read More ›