Eff Issues

Use of cell phone that records to track your physical location without first obtaining a warrant based on probable cause

A technology that can be used to pinpoint the physical location of whatever item the tags are embedded in.

Protects programmers and developers engaged in cutting-edge exploration of technology in our world.

Patent rights were designed to promote investment, public disclosure, and most importantly, useful innovation, the patent system is often abused.

Instead of using their true names to communicate, these people choose to speak using pseudonyms (assumed names) or anonymously (no name at all).

The federal government is trying to force states to turn your drivers license into a national ID. Will create grave dangers to privacy and impose massive financial burdens without improving national security in the least.

Electronic voting machines and related election procedures.EFF is protecting your right to vote in the courts while working with legislators and election officials across the country to ensure fair, transparent elections.

There are countless privacy pitfalls in a world where a near-endless stream of personal bits is indiscriminately posted, indefinitely stored, and quietly collected and analyzed by marketers, identity thieves, and professional government snoops in America and abroad.

Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL and other search engines record your search queries and maintain massive databases that reach into the most intimate details of your life.

Although the proposed treaty’s title might suggest that the agreement deals only with counterfeit physical goods (such as medicines), what little information has been made available publicly by negotiating governments about the content of the treaty makes it clear that it will have a far broader scope, and in particular, will deal with new tools targetting “Internet distribution and information technology”.

Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) in 1994 to make it easier for law enforcement to wiretap digital telephone networks. CALEA forced telephone companies to redesign their network architectures to make wiretapping easier. It expressly did not regulate data traveling over the Internet.

"Trusted computing" initiatives propose to solve some of today's security problems through hardware changes to the personal computer. Computer security is undeniably important, and as new vulnerabilities are discovered and exploited, the perceived need for new security solutions grows.

The Texas judge invited EFF to file the brief in response to requests from government investigators to use a "pen register" or "trap and trace device" to collect all numbers dialed on a phone keypad after a call has been connected.

We're working with a number of other public-interest organizations to ensure that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) doesn't gag bloggers' election-related speech. We argue that the FEC should adopt a presumption against the regulation of election-related speech by individuals on the Internet, and interpret the existing media exemption to apply to online media outlets that provide news reporting and commentary regarding an election -- including blogs.

These cases all involve defending people's right to remain anonymous when they post comments on message boards, as well as making sure that anonymous speakers' due process rights are respected.

New technology has the potential to dramatically improve the lives of those with reading disabilities -- including the blind and profoundly dyslexic, and those with spinal injuries. Information in electronic formats can be made accessible using technologies like text-to-speech and refreshable Braille, opening up whole new worlds to people who have previously been unable to access information.

Today, you can use any device you like with your television: VCR, TiVo, DVD recorder, home theater receiver, or a PC combining these functions and more. But if the broadcast flag mandate is passed, Hollywood and federal bureaucrats will get a veto over innovative devices and legitimate uses of recorded programming.All makers of HDTV receivers will be required to build their devices to watch for a "flag" embedded in programs by copyright holders.

Major entertainment companies are using "digital rights management," or DRM (aka content or copy protection), to lock up your digital media. DRM can prevent you from making back ups of your DVDs and music downloaded from online stores, recording your favorite TV programs, using the portable media player of your choice, remixing clips of movies into your own home movies, and much more.