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  1. #11
    Calikid,

    Thanks for the updates.

    Truly mind-boggling, privacy is a thing of the past.

  2. #12
    Lead Moderator calikid's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CasperParks View Post
    Calikid,

    Thanks for the updates.

    Truly mind-boggling, privacy is a thing of the past.
    Yes. EFF does a good job.
    Nice to see an industry icon, Steve Wozniak, involved in social issues.
    The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but
    progress. -- Joseph Joubert
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  3. #13
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    Electronic Frontier Foundation
    Issue 703

    Malware Linked to Government of Kazakhstan Targets Journalists, Political Activists, Lawyers
    EFF has discovered that critics have Kazakhstan’s government have been systematically targeted by a phishing and malware campaign. Based on the evidence available, we believe that the government itself is behind the attack.


    Stand Up for Open Access. Stand Up for Diego.
    Colombian graduate student Diego Gomez shared another student’s Master’s thesis with colleagues over the Internet. That simple act—something that many people all over the world do every day—put Diego at risk of spending years in prison. Closing arguments in Diego’s trial are scheduled for this week.

    When laws punish intellectual curiosity, everyone suffers; not just researchers, but also the people who would benefit from their research. Please join us in standing with Diego; together, we can fight for a time when everyone can access and share the world’s research.

    EFF Updates

    DRM: You Have the Right to Know What You’re Buying
    EFF and a coalition of organizations and individuals are asking the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to require retailers to warn you when the products you buy come locked down by DRM (digital rights management). We think that customers have the right to know when they’re buying something with technical restrictions built in.

    Copyright Office Jumps Into Set-Top Box Debate, Says Hollywood Should Control Your TV
    The FCC has proposed a rule change that would allow pay TV customers choose devices and apps from anywhere rather than being forced to use the box and associated software provided by the cable company. Major entertainment companies are trying to derail the effort with misleading arguments about copyright law.

    Victory! Oregon Supreme Court Agrees that Violating a Company Rule is Not a Computer Crime
    Violating a company rule is not—and should not be—a computer crime. Some prosecutors are trying to use statutes targeting computer break-ins in order to enforce employer policies, but the Oregon Supreme Court is not buying it.

    What to Do About Lawless Government Hacking and the Weakening of Digital Security
    When governments hack computers for law enforcement purposes, it can directly impact everyone’s digital security. It’s time for a public discussion on whether, when, and how governments can be empowered to break into our computers, phones, and other devices.

    Protecting the Fourth Amendment in the Information Age: A Response to Robert Litt
    There’s a debate taking place over how the Fourth Amendment should be interpreted in the Internet age. Some commentators insist that Constitutional privacy protections don’t apply to most mass surveillance. Such arguments ignore the reasons why we have a Fourth Amendment in the first place.

    First Aereo, Now FilmOn: Another Fight for Innovation and Competition in TV Technology

    Once again, big media companies are trying to use copyright law to stop new startups. This time, FilmOn is fighting in multiple lawsuits around the U.S. for the right to capture local TV broadcasts and stream them to paying subscribers.

    Stupid Patent of the Month: Solocron Education Trolls With Password Patent
    A company called Solocron is filing lawsuits left and right over its “verification system” for educational content. What kind of verification system does Solocron claim to have invented? Passwords.

    Bipartisan Caucus Launches in the House to Defend Fourth Amendment
    On matters implicating privacy, Congress has too often failed to fulfill its responsibilities. By neglecting to examine basic facts and deferring to executive agencies whose secrets preclude meaningful debate, lawmakers have allowed proposals that undermine constitutional rights to repeatedly become enshrined in law. With the recent launch of a new bipartisan Fourth Amendment Caucus in the House, the Constitution has gained a formidable ally.

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    Aug 10, 2016
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  4. #14
    Lead Moderator calikid's Avatar
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    Electronic Frontier Foundation
    Issue 704

    With Windows 10, Microsoft Blatantly Disregards User Choice and Privacy
    Microsoft had an ambitious goal with the launch of Windows 10: a billion devices running the software by the end of 2018. In its quest to reach that goal, the company aggressively pushed Windows 10 on its users and even offered free upgrades for a whole year. There’s nothing wrong with encouraging users to upgrade their software, but the user should always be in control.

    In its eagerness to move every Windows user to Windows 10, Microsoft has ignored two of the keystones of modern computing: user choice and privacy. The company has used tactics that have essentially amounted to tricking users into making the upgrade. That’s particularly troubling when Windows 10 sends an unprecedented amount of user data to Microsoft servers.

    EFF Updates

    Civil Rights Coalition files FCC Complaint Against Baltimore Police Department
    The Center for Media Justice, ColorOfChange.org, and New America’s Open Technology Institute recently filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission alleging the Baltimore police are violating the federal Communications Act with their use of cell site simulators, also known as Stingrays. This technology disrupts cellphone calls and interferes with the cellular network—and does it in a way that has a disproportionate impact on communities of color. If you want to see the FCC take action, tell the commissioners now.

    Tell Your University: Don’t Sell Patents to Trolls
    When universities invent, those inventions should benefit everyone. Unfortunately, they sometimes end up in the hands of patent trolls—companies that serve no purpose but to amass patents and demand money from innovators. If you think that universities shouldn’t do business with trolls, then join us in calling on your college or university to stand up for real innovation.

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection Wants to Know Who You Are on Twitter—But It’s a Flawed Plan
    U.S. border control agents want to gather Facebook and Twitter identities from visitors from around the world. But this flawed plan would violate travelers’ privacy, and would have a wide-ranging impact on freedom of expression—all while doing little or nothing to protect Americans from terrorism.

    The Global Ambitions of Pakistan’s New Cyber-Crime Act
    Pakistan’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill (PECB) last week passed into law despite near unanimous condemnation from tech experts and serious concerns from civil liberties groups. The PECB isn’t only a tragedy for free expression and privacy within Pakistan; it also has dangerous ramifications for Pakistan nationals abroad and frightening implications for international criminal law in general.

    California Lawmaker Pulls Digital Currency Bill After EFF Opposition
    For the second year in a row, EFF and a coalition of virtual currency and consumer protection organizations have beaten back a California bill that would have created untenable burdens for the emerging cryptocurrency community.

    White House Source Code Policy Should Go Further
    A new federal government policy will result in the government releasing more of the software that it creates under free and open source software licenses. That’s great news, but the policy doesn’t go far enough in its goals or in enabling public oversight.

    Word Games: What the NSA Means by “Targeted” Surveillance Under Section 702
    We all know that the NSA uses word games to hide and downplay its activities. Words like “collect,” “conversations,” “communications,” and even “surveillance” have suffered tortured definitions that create confusion rather than clarity. There’s another one to watch: “targeted” surveillance.

    The FCC Can’t Save Community Broadband—But We Can
    While most of us were focused on the FCC’s Open Internet Order to protect net neutrality last year, the FCC quietly did one more thing: it voted to override certain state regulations that inhibit the development and expansion of community broadband projects. A federal appeals court recently rejected the FCC’s effort, but the fight for community broadband is far from over.

    We Shouldn’t Wait Another Fifteen Years for a Conversation About Government Hacking
    With high-profile hacks in the headlines and government officials trying to reopen a long-settled debate about encryption, information security has become a mainstream issue. But we feel that one element of digital security hasn't received enough critical attention: the role of government in acquiring and exploiting vulnerabilities and hacking for law enforcement and intelligence purposes.




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  5. #15
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    Electronic Frontier Foundation
    Issue 705

    How to Change Your WhatsApp Settings Before Facebook Data Sharing Begins
    WhatsApp is establishing data-sharing practices that signal a significant shift in its attitude toward privacy—though you wouldn’t know it from the privacy policy update that popped up on users’ screens recently. The new policy lays the groundwork for alarming data sharing between WhatsApp and its parent company Facebook.

    Existing WhatsApp users have until September 25 to click through this update and agree or not agree to Facebook using their WhatsApp data to suggest friends and serve ads. Unfortunately, WhatsApp’s user interface does not offer clear information about what the new privacy policy will change and buries mechanisms for opting out. We urge WhatsApp to make available settings and options more obvious to users. Until then, see this post for a step-by-step guide to change your account settings, and read more about what these changes mean for user privacy.


    EFF Updates

    EFF Presents the 25th Annual Pioneer Awards
    On September 21 in San Francisco, we will be celebrating the work of the 2016 Pioneer Award winners: Malkia Cyril, Max Schrems, the authors of “Keys Under Doormats,” and California State Senators Mark Leno and Joel Anderson. The celebration will include drinks, bytes, and excellent company. Join us!

    The Shadow Brokers Publish NSA Spy Tools, Demonstrating Possible Flaws in the NSA’s Approach to Security Vulnerabilities
    A group calling itself the Shadow Brokers recently released powerful surveillance tools publicly on the Web and promises to publish more dangerous tools for the price of one million bitcoin. Lots of people want to speculate on how this leak could have happened and on whether there are more powerful hacking tools that will go public soon. But that’s missing the bigger question: is it time to create a real process that could, in some circumstances, force the NSA to disclose security flaws to American companies, so vulnerable systems can get patched?

    Latest Leak Confirms European Copyright Plans Offer Little for Users
    The draft text of a European Commission Directive on copyright has leaked, and we’ve reviewed some of the proposed changes. The most concerning elements are new responsibilities on Internet platforms and new copyright-like rights for publishers. Even aspects that sound good on the surface come with some annoying limitations.

    Stupid Patent of the Month: Elsevier Patents Online Peer Review
    On August 30, 2016, the Patent Office issued U.S. Patent No. 9,430,468, titled: “Online peer review and method.” The owner of this patent is none other than Elsevier, the giant academic publisher. When it first applied for the patent, Elsevier sought very broad claims that could have covered a wide range of online peer review. Fortunately, by the time the patent actually issued, its claims had been narrowed significantly. We think the patent is stupid, invalid, and an indictment of the system.

    Do Over, Please: EFF and ACLU Ask Ninth Circuit to Revisit Two Dangerous CFAA Rulings
    Imagine being convicted of a crime for logging into a friend’s social media account with their permission. Or for logging into your spouse’s bank account to pay a bill, even though a pop-up banner appeared stating that only account holders were permitted to access the system. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last month issued two decisions—by two different three-judge panels in two separate cases—which seem to turn such actions into federal crimes.

    Transparency Hunters Capture More than 400 California Database Catalogs
    A team of over 40 transparency activists aimed their browsers at California this past weekend, collecting more than 400 database catalogs from local government agencies, as required under a new state law. Together, participants in the California Database Hunt shined light on thousands upon thousands of government record systems.

    European Copyright Leak Exposes Plans to Force the Internet to Subsidize Publishers
    A just-leaked draft impact assessment on the modernization of European copyright rules could spell the end for many online services in Europe as we know them. The document’s recommendations foreshadow a new European Union Directive on copyright to be introduced later this year, that will ultimately bind each of the 28 member states. If these recommendations by the European Commission are put in place, Europe’s Internet will never be the same, and these impacts are likely to reverberate around the world.

    Justice Department Pressed to Intervene When Police Arrest Grassroots Journalists
    Across the country, civilian journalists have documented government violence using cell phones to record police activities, forcing a much-needed national discourse. But in case after case, the people who face penalties in the wake of police violence are the courageous and quick-witted residents who use technology to enable transparency.

    miniLinks

    Inside the Secret Court That Rules the World (BuzzFeed News)
    BuzzFeed News has kicked off an investigative series on the “secret justice system” in agreements like the TPP.

    Secret Cameras Record Baltimore's Every Move from Above (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)
    Baltimore police are using real-time aerial surveillance without public disclosure.

    Warrant for Former DA Paul Zellerbach in Wiretap Case (The Desert Sun)
    California judge issues contempt warrant for the Riverside District Attorney behind a fifth of all U.S. wiretaps.


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  6. #16
    Lead Moderator calikid's Avatar
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    Electronic Frontier Foundation
    Issue 706 - pg 1 of 2.

    The FBI’s Unprecedented and Illegal Hacking Operation
    It started with a tip to the FBI from a foreign law enforcement agency that a Tor Hidden Service site called “Playpen” was hosting child pornography. That tip would ultimately lead to the largest known hacking operation in U.S. law enforcement history. The Playpen investigation—driven by the FBI's hacking campaign—resulted in hundreds of criminal prosecutions that are currently working their way through the federal courts.

    The issues in these cases are technical and the alleged crimes are distasteful. But make no mistake: these cases are laying the foundation for the future expansion of law enforcement hacking in domestic criminal investigations, and the precedent these cases create is likely to impact the digital privacy rights of Internet users for years to come.

    Spying on Students: Tell Us About Your Experiences with K-12 Student Privacy
    School districts around the country are making use of cloud–based educational platforms and assigning laptops and tablets to students. Almost one third of all students—elementary through high school—already use school–issued digital devices, and many of these devices present a serious risk to student privacy. They collect far more information on kids than is necessary, store this information indefinitely, and sometimes even upload it to the cloud automatically. In short, they’re spying on students—and school districts, which often provide inadequate privacy policies (or no privacy policy at all), are helping them.

    As the 2016-2017 school year begins, we want to hear from you about your experiences with student privacy and school-issued devices in your community. Take EFF's student privacy survey and help us paint a nation-wide picture of risks to student privacy.

    EFF Updates

    Facebook's Nudity Ban Affects All Kinds of Users
    Facebook’s recent censorship of the iconic AP photograph of nine year-old Kim Phúc fleeing naked from a napalm bombing has once again brought the issue of commercial content moderation to the fore. Although Facebook has since apologized, the social media giant continues to defend the policy that allowed the takedown to happen in the first place.

    If You Build A Censorship Machine, They Will Come
    If you have the power to censor other people’s speech, special interests will try to co-opt that power for their own purposes. That’s a lesson the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is learning this year. MPAA, which represents six major movie studios, also runs the private entity that assigns movie ratings in the U.S. While it’s a voluntary system with no formal connection to government, MPAA's “Classification and Ratings Administration” wields remarkable power.

    4 Things to Consider When Running Social Media Campaigns About Texas Inmates
    The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) sent shockwaves through the prisoner rights community in April when it announced a new policy forbidding inmates from participating in social media. The wording of the new TDCJ rule was vague and chillingly broad, and the community was unsure how it would be applied.

    CBP Fails to Meaningfully Address Risks of Gathering Social Media Handles
    We submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency opposing its proposal to gather social media handles from foreign visitors from Visa Waiver Program countries. CBP recently provided its preliminary responses to several of our arguments. The proposal to collect social media handles has serious flaws—and the government has failed to adequately address them.

    Civil Liberties Groups Call for Stronger Oversight by House Intelligence Committee
    Edward Snowden’s release of once-secret documents about U.S. intelligence surveillance focused much-needed attention on the problem of how to control the burgeoning U.S. surveillance-industrial complex. But while the USA Freedom Act began to limit national security surveillance to some extent, it did little to address the underlying problem of excessive executive branch secrecy.

    Copyright Shouldn't Hold Technology Back
    The FCC is about to make a decision about whether third-party companies can market their own alternatives to the set-top boxes provided by cable companies. The fight over set-top boxes isn’t just about stimulating competition to bring higher quality products to market—it’s about your basic rights as a consumer.

    Tell Justin Trudeau to Fight for Web Developer Saeed Malekpour
    Saeed Malekpour—a Canadian resident, Iranian citizen, and programmer—was seized by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard during a visit to his family in 2008 based on unsubstantiated accusations of connections to illegal websites. Saeed’s freedom depends on the global attention his case receives. That’s why we're asking you to write to Trudeau now, and tell the Canadian government that the world has not forgotten Saeed.

    European Copyright Ruling Ushers in New Dark Era for Hyperlinks
    In a case which threatens to cause turmoil for thousands if not millions of websites, the Court of Justice of the European Union decided today that a website that merely links to material that infringes copyright, can itself be found guilty of copyright infringement, provided only that the operator knew or could reasonably have known that the material was infringing.

    Analog: The Last Defense Against DRM
    With the recent iPhone 7 announcement, Apple confirmed what had already been widely speculated: that the new smartphone won’t have a traditional, analog headphone jack. By switching from an analog signal to a digital one, Apple has potentially given itself more control than ever over what people can do with music or other audio content on an iPhone.

    Content Companies Demand Total Control of Set-Top Boxes at FCC
    Major TV producers have finally said what they really want from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in exchange for breaking up the cable companies’ monopoly over set-top boxes. As they continue to push fake copyright arguments that experts in copyright law have roundly refuted, the big TV companies have now made clear that they do not want consumers to have the ability to search the Internet for videos and they do not want device makers to have the freedom to create devices with all of the features consumers want.

    miniLinks
    Unprecedented and Unlawful: The NSA’s “Upstream” Surveillance
    ACLU staff attorneys explain why the NSA’s upstream collection is mass surveillance.

    'Edward Snowden did this country a great service. Let him come home.'
    EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn, Bernie Sanders, Daniel Ellsberg, and former members of the NSA weigh in on whether Obama should pardon Edward Snowden.

    Correcting the Record on Section 702: A Prerequisite for Meaningful Surveillance Reform
    The NSA’s 702 surveillance is broader than it seems and needs reform. Jennifer Granick explains.




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  7. #17
    Lead Moderator calikid's Avatar
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    The "Five EFF Tools" listed below look like some useful utilities, check them out!

    Electronic Frontier Foundation
    Issue 706 - page 2 of 2.


    EFF to HP: Don't Hide DRM in a Security Update
    HP released a deceptive security update that reconfigured thousands of printers to accept only HP’s ink cartridges rather than third-party or recycled ones. Over 10,000 of you joined EFF in calling on HP to make amends for its self-destructing printers—and we got HP’s attention. HP responded on its blog, recognizing the mistake and saying it will issue an optional firmware update to roll back the changes it had made.

    We’re very glad to see HP making this step. But a number of questions remain. We want to see HP promise to never again use a security update to take away features, and to commit to not attacking security researchers who disclose vulnerabilities in its printers. HP must also be more transparent about how many printers were affected by this update, and tell us how they will communicate the optional patch to all customers. Join us in demanding that HP say "no" to DRM.


    Five EFF Tools to Help You Protect Yourself Online
    Do you get creeped out when an ad eerily related to your recent Internet activity seems to follow you around the web? Do you ever wonder why you sometimes see a green lock with “https” in your address bar, and other times just plain “http”? EFF’s team of technologists and computer scientists can help with tools like Privacy Badger, Panopticlick, HTTPS Everywhere, Certbot, and Surveillance Self-Defense.


    EFF Updates

    Google’s Allo Sends The Wrong Message About Encryption
    When Google announced its new Allo messaging app, we were initially pleased to see the company responding to long-standing consumer demand for user-friendly, secure messaging. Unfortunately, it now seems that Google's response may cause more harm than good. While Allo does expose more users to end-to-end encrypted messaging, this potential benefit is outweighed by the cost of Allo’s mixed signals about what secure messaging is and how it works.

    Oversight Transition Isn't Giving Away the Internet, But Won't Fix ICANN's Problems
    Oversight over the performance of ICANN's IANA functions has passed from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to ICANN's global multi-stakeholder community. Despite several weeks of heated discussion within the United States, we haven’t commented much on this transition. That’s because there has not been much to say: little has changed with the transition, and that includes the continuing threats to free expression and privacy that sometimes emerge within the domain name system.

    Fair Processes, Better Outcomes
    What can we do when threats to digital rights aren’t the result of a law or an individual company’s practices, but the result of a private industry agreement? Unlike laws, such agreements aren’t developed with public input or accountability. We call these invisible arrangements Shadow Regulation. EFF is proposing a set of criteria focused on inclusion, balance, and accountability to set a positive agenda for how such such agreements could be done better.

    Stupid Design Patent of the Month: Rectangles on a Screen
    This month’s stupid patent shows just how broken the current system of design patents is. U.S. Patent D767,583 is a patent on a design for a “display screen portion with graphical user interface.” The only thing claimed in this design patent are three rectangles at the top of a display screen and a square beneath them. This patent is both remarkably trivial and remarkably easy to be accused of infringing.

    Victory! Gov. Brown Signs Bill to Overhaul California's Broken Gang Databases
    Over the last few weeks, a broad coalition of civil liberties and social justice organizations rained down letters, tweets, and op-eds on Gov. Jerry Brown, urging him to sign A.B. 2298, a bill to begin the process of overhauling the state's CalGang gang affiliation database. Last week, it all paid off.

    Why the Warrant to Hack in the Playpen Case Was an Unconstitutional General Warrant
    Should the government be able to get a warrant to search a potentially unlimited number of computers belonging to unknown people located anywhere in the world? That’s the question posed by the Playpen case, involving the FBI’s use of malware against over 1000 visitors to a site hosting child pornography. The prosecutions resulting from this mass hacking operation are unprecedented in many ways, but the scope of the single warrant that purportedly authorized the FBI’s actions represents perhaps the biggest departure from traditional criminal procedure.

    Facial Recognition, Differential Privacy, and Trade-Offs in Apple's Latest OS Releases

    With new machine learning features in its latest phone and desktop operating system releases, Apple is exploring ways to provide cloud-based services and collect related user data with more regard for privacy. Two of these features—on-device facial recognition and differential privacy—deserve a closer look from a privacy perspective. While we applaud these steps, it’s hard to know how effective they are without more information from Apple about their implementation and methods.

    Record Labels Make New Grab For Website-Blocking Power in YouTube-MP3 Suit
    Major record labels are once again asking a court to give them power over the Internet’s basic infrastructure. This is the very power that Congress has refused to give them, and the very power they have proven unable and unwilling to use responsibly. This time, their alleged target is the website Youtube-MP3.org, a site that extracts the audio tracks from YouTube videos and allows users to download them.

    NSA’s Failure to Report Shadow Broker Vulnerabilities Underscores Need for Oversight
    An entity calling itself the “Shadow Brokers” took the security world by surprise this summer by publishing what appears to be a portion of the NSA’s hacking toolset. Government investigators now believe that the Shadow Brokers stole the cache of powerful NSA network exploitation tools when they were accidentally left on a computer located outside of the NSA’s network.

    A Digital Rumor Should Never Lead to a Police Raid

    If police raided a home based only on an anonymous phone call claiming residents broke the law, it would be clearly unconstitutional. Yet EFF has found that police and courts are regularly conducting and approving raids based on the similar type of unreliable digital evidence: Internet Protocol address information.

    BaycloudSystems Joins EFF's Do Not Track Coalition
    Baycloud Systems is the latest company to join the EFF's Do Not Track coalition, which opposes the tracking of users without their consent. Baycloud designs systems to help companies and users monitor and manage tracking cookies. Based in the UK, it provides thousands of sites across Europe with tools for compliance with European Union data protection laws.



    miniLinks

    Police surveillance: The US city that beat Big Brother
    Grassroots activists in Oakland, CA took action against proposed police surveillance. The BBC reports.

    How an Old Hacking Law Hampers the Fight Against Online Discrimination
    The New Yorker on how the outdated Computer Fraud & Abuse Act impedes online discrimination research.

    Librarians Stand Again Against FBI Overreach
    “The Connecticut Four,” a group of librarians who challenged National Security Letters in 2005, explain why the Senate should not expand those powers now.




    This newsletter is printed from 100% recycled electrons.
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  8. #18
    Lead Moderator calikid's Avatar
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    Electronic Frontier Foundation
    Issue 708

    Unblinking Eyes: The State of Communications Surveillance in Latin America
    We’re proud to announce the release of “Unblinking Eyes: The State of Communications Surveillance in Latin America,” a project in collaboration with partner organizations across the region to document and analyze surveillance laws and practices in twelve countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

    Our reports, in both English and Spanish, show the need for comprehensive legal reform across Latin America to protect users from unlawful government surveillance. While every Latin American constitution we investigated recognizes a right to privacy and data protection, most countries do not implement those rights in a way that fully complies with international human rights standards. Overall, secrecy surrounding tactics and prevalence of surveillance is widespread in Latin America, and many countries have yet to develop a culture of transparency reporting by communications providers.

    In addition to individual country reports from our international partners, EFF has produced a broader comparative report comparing laws and practices across countries, a legal analysis of the 13 Necessary and Proportionate Principles, and an interactive map summarizing our findings.

    EFF Updates

    Where WhatsApp Went Wrong: EFF's Four Biggest Security Concerns
    After careful consideration, we have decided to add additional warnings and caveats about using WhatsApp to our Surveillance Self Defense guide. It is getting harder and harder to explain WhatsApp’s security pitfalls in a way that is clear, understandable, and actionable for users. This is especially true since WhatsApp’s announcement that it would be changing its user agreement regarding data sharing with the rest of Facebook’s services.

    Patent Forum Shopping Must End
    Forum shopping is rampant in patent litigation. Last year, almost 45 percent of all patent cases were heard in the Eastern District of Texas, a sparsely populated region. EFF, along with Public Knowledge, has filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to hear a case that could end forum shopping in patent cases.

    EFF Goes to Washington to Fight Against the Changes to Rule 41
    If Congress does nothing, a new policy will take effect in less than two months that will make it easier than ever for the FBI to infiltrate, monitor, and damage computers remotely. With the threat of “Rule 41” changes looming, EFF went to DC to speak to policymakers about the future of computer security and the ramifications of government hacking.

    Upload Filtering Mandate Would Shred European Copyright Safe Harbor
    European regulators have finally released the full and final proposal on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, and unfortunately it's full of ideas that will hurt users and the platforms on which they rely, in Europe and around the world.

    Tell the Copyright Office: Copyright Law Shouldn't Punish Research and Repair
    After 18 years, we may finally see real reform to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s unconstitutional pro-DRM provisions. As locked-down copyrighted software shows up in more devices, people are realizing how important it is to be able to break those locks. If you can’t tinker with or repair it, then you don’t really own it—someone else does, and their interests will take precedence over yours.

    Is Let’s Encrypt the Largest Certificate Authority on the Web?
    Let’s Encrypt has issued its 12 millionth certificate, of which six million are active and unexpired. With these milestones, Let’s Encrypt now appears to us to be the the Internet’s largest certificate authority—but a recent analysis by W3Techs said we were only the third largest. So in this post we investigate: how big is Let’s Encrypt, really?

    USA FREEDOM Act Requires Government to Declassify Any Order to Yahoo
    In the wake of reports that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered Yahoo to scan all of its users’ email in 2015, there are many unanswered legal and technical questions. But before we can even begin to answer them, there is a more fundamental question: what does the court order say?

    FCC Helped Create the Stingray Problem, Now it Needs to Fix It
    The Baltimore Police Department is illegally using “Stingray” technology, which spies on cell phones by simulating a cellular tower. EFF recently supported a complaint to the Federal Communications Commission asking the agency to address Stingrays’ impact on speech, interference with 911 calls, and invasion of privacy.

    Google Changes Its Tune When it Comes to Tracking Students
    Since we submitted our FTC complaint about Google’s student privacy practices a little under a year ago, Google has made some encouraging changes. However, the core of our FTC complaint—that Google collects data on students using certain services despite promising not to do so—remains.


    No One Owns Invisible Disabilities

    The purpose of registered trademarks is to protect people. But when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issues overly broad or generic trademarks, those trademarks do just the opposite: they can expose us to the risk of legal bullying.

    miniLinks

    Facebook-backed school software shows promise — and raises privacy concerns
    A new school software tool backed by Facebook raises student privacy concerns. The Washington Post reports.

    Universities have turned over hundreds of patents to patent trolls
    Which universities have sold the most patents to notorious mega-troll Intellectual Ventures? Yarden Katz digs into this question on Medium.




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  9. #19
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    Electronic Frontier Foundation
    Issue 709

    Open Access on the Frontlines for Transparency and Innovation
    In most issues of EFFector, we give an overview of all the work we’re doing at EFF. Today, in light of the recent international celebration of Open Access Week, we’re doing a deep dive into a single issue: open access and how it drives public innovation and transparency.

    The Internet should be a place where we can share ideas and educate ourselves unimpeded by unfair paywalls or backwards licensing—and the academic publishing world is at the frontlines of the battle to make it that way.

    Academic research is a driving force behind technological innovations, medical breakthroughs, and policy decisions. The open access movement has been working for decades to make that research more open and accessible to the public. “Open access” refers to the practice of making research and other scholarly materials freely and immediately available online. Ideally, this happens under licenses that allow full reuse, sharing, and adaptation.

    At first glance, this may not seem like a radical idea. Researchers tend to want to share their work; most research is federally funded and thus paid for by taxpayers; and public access to research pushes innovation forward. On top of all that, the Internet makes sharing and collaborating easier than ever, for professional researchers and amateur problem-solvers alike.

    But academic publishing today is stuck in a traditional system that was built on paper, not on the web. In a paper world, we needed publishers as an intermediary between researchers and readers. In a digital world, however, giant publishers have taken on the role of gatekeepers and legal bullies.

    This leaves us with a system in which publishers charge libraries and users exorbitant fees for access to subscription journals and paywalled databases. The average price for a one-year institutional subscription to a scholarly journal is in the thousands, with some specialty publications charging as much as $40,000.

    Without a wealthy library or university footing the bill, ordinary users may have to pay upwards of $30 a pop to access research articles—a difficult proposition for a patient researching their medical care options, a high school student doing homework, a non-profit employee analyzing public policy, or an unemployed person getting up-to-date on their field while looking for a job.

    The open access response to this restrictive status quo boils down to two primary goals: making research accessible, and making research reusable.

    Free to Access
    Universities and the federal government hold many of the keys when it comes to unlocking access to research. As these creators and funders of research change their policies, publishers will feel the pressure to migrate to open access business models.

    Even Harvard University—the richest in America—cannot afford all the journal subscriptions its faculty and students need. To save funds and further its mission of creating and disseminating knowledge, Harvard established the country’s first university open access policy in 2008. Since then, the University of California system, MIT, the University of Oregon, Duke, and countless others have followed suit, often thanks to student activism.

    The federal government funds a huge slice of the research world, both inside and outside of universities. In 2013, FASTR—the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act—was introduced, proposing that every federal agency that spends more than $100 million on research grants be required to adopt an open access policy. After all, when taxpayer dollars fund research from the likes of NASA and the NSF, the public should have access to that research.

    Free to Reuse
    Open access depends on more than removing cost barriers. It also means giving the public freedom to use research. Under the current academic publishing model, even the simple act of sharing can be a crime.

    When Diego Gomez, a Master’s student in Colombia, shared a colleague’s thesis with other scientists over the Internet, he was doing what any grad student would do: sharing research he found useful so others could benefit from it. But the author of the paper filed a lawsuit, and Diego’s act of sharing became a copyright violation punishable by four to eight years in prison.

    In the U.S., activist Aaron Swartz also met unjust charges on 13 criminal counts for downloading millions of articles from academic journal database JSTOR. The charges would have put him in jail for years under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

    If other users see Diego’s or Aaron’s cases and fear the consequences that can come with copyright infringement allegations, everyday activities like sharing academic resources can become intimidating. These cases remind us that sharing and building on existing research is integral to the open access vision. That could mean anything from translation to remixing to large-scale analysis. In an open access world, these innovative, collaborative actions would not be criminal.

    Standing Up For Open Access
    You can join EFF in speaking out for open access principles of transparency and innovation on national and international levels.

    For a bill whose name sounds like “faster,” FASTR has been remarkably slow to move through Congress. EFF is rallying members of Congress to support FASTR now and ensure public access to public funded research.

    Our activism to move FASTR is only the tip of the iceberg. Research exists within a web of laws that restrict the public’s access to and use of knowledge. EFF is working toward reform in areas including overbearing copyright law, patent practices, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

    Internationally, we have been standing with Diego Gomez for two and a half years since his trial started—and we continue to stand with him and demand global open access today.

    Fulfilling our shared human right to information with open access could be transformative. Only when research is available to everyone—not just those with large budgets or institutional connections—can we fully promote innovation and creativity.

    miniLinks
    A Tale of Two Dystopias: Order and Chaos on the Electronic Frontier
    Open Technology Institute Director Kevin Bankston on science fiction, tech policy, and EFF.

    Justice Department Releases Guidelines on Controversial Anti-Hacking Law
    In its newly released Computer Fraud & Abuse Act guidelines, the DOJ admits that laws have not kept up with technology. The Intercept reports.

    AT&T Is Spying on Americans for Profit, New Documents Reveal
    The Daily Beast reveals AT&T documents about the secretive Hemisphere call records program.

    [HR]

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    Our members make it possible for EFF to bring legal and technological expertise into crucial battles about online rights. Whether defending free speech online or challenging unconstitutional surveillance, your participation makes a difference. Every donation gives technology users who value freedom online a stronger voice and more formidable advocate.

    If you aren't already, please consider becoming an EFF member today.

    Donate Today

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  10. #20
    Lead Moderator calikid's Avatar
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    Electronic Frontier Foundation
    Issue 710



    Support the SMDH Act and Give Congress Time to Debate New Government Hacking Powers

    The clock is ticking. If Congress doesn’t act now, the government will soon be able to use a search warrant to hack an untold number of computers located around the world.

    Lawmakers are rightfully pushing to postpone these new hacking powers, arguing that Congress has not had sufficient time to debate these new powers and their privacy and security implications. We’ve supported previous delay efforts, and now we’re asking Congress to pass the Stalling Mass Damaging Hacking Act (the SMDH Act), which gives Congress until April 1 to consider these new hacking powers.

    Despite lawmakers’ questions—and some less than helpful answers from the Justice Department—we still don’t know enough about how the government plans to use these new hacking powers, whether there are any privacy or security protections in place, and how government hacking can open up Internet users’ devices and networks to attacks from non-government hackers.

    Congress needs more time to consider these questions and get more information in hearings before the new hacking powers go into effect. Call your senator today and tell them to support the Stalling Mass Damaging Hacking Act to give Congress that time.


    EFF Updates


    Protecting Tomorrow

    Many supporters have contacted us with concerns about the election results. At this critical moment, we want digital civil liberties supporters worldwide to feel confident that EFF remains steadfast in its mission and method: to use law and technology to champion civil liberties and provide a potent check against overreach.

    Tech Companies, Fix These Technical Issues Before It’s Too Late

    The results of the election have put the tech industry in a risky position. President-elect Trump has promised to deport millions of our friends and neighbors, track people based on their religious beliefs, and undermine users’ digital security and privacy. He’ll need Silicon Valley’s cooperation to do it—and Silicon Valley can fight back.

    E-Voting Machines Need Paper Audits to be Trustworthy

    Election security experts concerned about voting machines are calling for an audit of ballots in the three states where the presidential election was very close: Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. We join their call for an audit. This is an important election safety measure and should happen in all elections, not just those that have a razor-thin margin.

    Obama Can Still Boost Transparency, Accountability Before Trump Takes Office

    In a letter to the Obama administration this week, EFF and other civil liberties groups—including Demand Progress and OpenTheGovernment.org—are asking that the president shed some much-needed light on government actions that impact civil liberties ahead of his departure.

    Grassroots Digital Rights Alliance Expands Across U.S.


    It will take the concerted actions of our supporters to help EFF’s goals find their reflection in law, policy, technology, and culture. That’s why we launched the Electronic Frontier Alliance, a national network of grassroots groups from Atlanta to Austin taking action in their local communities to promote digital rights.

    Who Has Your Back in Colombia? A New Report Shows Telecom Privacy Slowly Improving

    While Colombia’s digital world continues to advance with 21st century technologies, the country’s privacy law has not kept pace. Colombian telecommunication companies have not yet stepped up to meet tech industry best practices related to privacy and transparency reporting. Nonetheless, two key members of Colombia’s telecommunications industry—ETB and Telefonica-Movistar—have improved their practices, with ETB leading the way.

    Digital Security Tips for Protesters

    Engaging in peaceful protest may put you at risk of search or arrest, having your movements and associations mapped, or otherwise becoming a target of surveillance and repression. Here we present 10 security tips for protesting in the digital age.

    TPP: A Post-Mortem

    The death of the Trans-Pacific Partnership has been confirmed by White House officials. This marks the end of a long-running campaign against the secretive agreement that EFF began back in 2012.


    miniLinks

    Want to Know if the Election was Hacked? Look at the Ballots

    Electronic voting machines need to be backed up by audits of their paper trail. Alex Haldermann explains why on Medium.

    Trump Presidency Fuels Heated Encryption Debate

    CNET covers a debate on encryption between EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn and former White House Director of Counterterrorism Daniel Rosenthal at the Versus16 conference in San Francisco.

    Parliament Passes Most Extreme Surveillance Law in UK History

    The UK parliament has passed the Investigatory Powers Bill, the most extreme surveillance bill yet. The Don't Spy On Us coalition gives the details.


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