Notices by Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff@mastodon.social), page 2

You can wear our new EFF Grey Hat to protect yourself from the sun and show your support for EFF's work protecting digital freedoms. https://shop.eff.org/products/eff-grey-hat

A previously classified transcript shows Congress knew U.S. TikTok users engage in constitutionally protected speech, but it banned the platform anyway, EFF Legal Fellow @BrendanGilligan writes for @Salon. It should’ve passed a data privacy law instead. https://www.salon.com/2024/10/03/congress-knew-banning-tiktok-was-a-first-amendment-problem-it-did-so-anyway/

Government and companies make it sound like automated license plate readers are “only looking for lawbreakers” when in fact the tech “collects everyone's data and stores that data often for immense periods of time,” EFF’s @maassive told @WIRED. https://www.wired.com/story/license-plate-readers-political-signs-bumper-stickers/

The FTC's latest investigation found giant tech companies collect way more data than users expect and share it widely without oversight. Federal privacy legislation is long overdue.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/09/ftc-report-confirms-commercial-surveillance-out-control

What should you do if someone emails you a picture of your house and a threat to publish pictures of you looking at porn? Don’t Panic, don’t pay, it’s probably fake. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/09/new-email-scam-includes-pictures-your-house-dont-fall-it

“Hard to find opt-out tools are almost never an effective way to allow users to exercise their privacy rights,” EFF’s F. Mario Trujillo told the @washingtonpost — companies “should present users with a clear ‘yes’ or ‘no’ consent choice.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/09/23/linkedin-training-ai-setting-opt-out/

Venezuela's digital identification systems have been weaponized against its population by linking access to essential services with affiliation to the governing party. Learn more about Venezuela's digital repression: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/09/unveiling-venezuelas-repression-legacy-state-surveillance-and-control

Tell your representative: Vote NO on KOSA!

Visit http://eff.org/KOSA

Residents of a wealthy Silicon Valley enclave are being hit with an email scam in which someone knows their name, includes a photo of their home, and claims to have hacked their most personal info. Don’t believe it, EFF’s @cooperq tells The Almanac.
https://www.almanacnews.com/crime/2024/09/17/atherton-police-department-warns-of-email-scams-that-use-photos-of-residents-homes/

Apple’s new password app alerts users to update a weak password or one that’s been used before. “The broader goal is to have more people using unique passwords and having more general online security,” EFF’s @Thorin told CNBC.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/16/biggest-new-apple-ios-18-iphone-apps-features-to-protect-your-privacy.html

Congratulations to 2024 EFF Awards Winner, Carolina Botero !

In over a decade as director of the Karisma Foundation, she transformed the organization into an outspoken voice fostering freedom of expression, privacy, access to knowledge, justice, and self-determination in our digital world.

Connecting Humanity’s founder, Mirna El Helbawi: “Connecting Humanity started from the people to the people, because asking today's leaders and governments for our right for a free and untouchable internet access is like asking your kidnapper to give you their phone so you can call the police.”

Congratulations to our 2024 EFF Awards Winner, Connecting Humanity!

Connecting Humanity collects and distributes embedded SIMs (eSIMs), a software version of the physical chip used to connect a phone to cellular networks and the internet. Connecting Humanity has collected hundreds of thousands of eSims from around the world and distributed them to people in Gaza, a crucial lifeline during Israel’s war on Hamas.

Congratulations to our first 2024 EFF Awards Winner, @404mediaco !

As the media landscape in general and tech media in particular keeps shrinking, 404 Media, launched in August 2023, has forged ahead with incisive investigative reports, deep-dive features, blogs, and scoops.

Co-founder of 404 Media, Jason Koebler: “We believe that there is a huge demand for journalism written by humans, for other humans, and that real people do not want to read AI generated news stories that are written for search engine optimization algorithms and social media algorithms, and then jammed down our throats.”

EFF’s Executive Director, Cindy Cohn: “Here are just a few victories we celebrated this year:
* Certbot Is Now on 4M Servers, Maintaining Over 31M Websites 
* The FCC Closed Loopholes and Restored Net Neutrality 
* EFF Helped Resist an Unlawful Warrant and Gag Order Issued to Indybay, an Independent News Outlet 
* And Police Drone Footage is Not Categorically Exempt from California’s Public Records Law (that means they can’t abuse public records laws to shield drone footage from scrutiny.)"

“We think the Internet Archive really was serving a transformative purpose and doing what libraries have always done: Loaning out books that they owned to one person at a time,” EFF’s Cara Gagliano told KQED News.
https://www.kqed.org/news/12003819/internet-archives-open-library-faces-uncertain-future-after-court-sides-with-publishers

School surveillance software claims to protect students, but the adverse mental effects of pervasive monitoring are well-known. It’s time for schools to step up and implement proven social measures to keep students safe. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/09/school-monitoring-software-sacrifices-student-privacy-unproven-promises-safety

The path to Justice can be winding, but we're in it to win it. Congratulations to @sagefault for being the first to work his way to the end and solve EFF's #DEFCON32 t-shirt puzzle!

Thanks to Aaron Steimle and @0xCryptoK of the Muppet Liberation Front for designing this year's challenge.

For fans at sporting events, face recognition technology must be explicitly opt-in with a viable alternative for those who decline, EFF’s Matthew Guariglia told @FastCompany. Biometric data can’t be changed if it’s leaked or stolen. “You only have one face.”
https://www.fastcompany.com/91185416/atlanta-falcons-fans-can-now-buy-stadium-snacks-with-their-faces