Sophia Cope
EFF
San Francisco, CA, United States
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Past articles by Sophia:
Supreme Court Narrows Ability to Hold U.S. Corporations Accountable for Facilitating Human Rights Abuses Abroad
People around the world have been horrified at the role that technology companies like Cisco, Yahoo!, and Sandvine have played in helping governments commit gross human rights abuses. That’s why EFF has consistently called out technology companies, and American companies in particular, that allow... → Read More
Lawsuit Against Snapchat Rightfully Goes Forward Based on “Speed Filter,” Not User Speech
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has allowed a civil lawsuit to move forward against Snapchat, a smartphone social media app, brought by the parents of three teenage boys who died tragically in a car accident after reaching a maximum speed of 123 miles per hour. We agree with the... → Read More
Proctoring Tools and Dragnet Investigations Rob Students of Due Process
In March, Dartmouth’s Committee on Student Performance and Conduct (CSPC) accused several students of accessing restricted materials online during exams. These accusations were based on a flawed review of an entire year’s worth of the students’ log data from Canvas, the online learning platform that contains class lectures and information. Similar to schools that rely heavily → Read More
Tenth Circuit Misses Opportunity to Affirm the First Amendment Right to Record the Police
We are disappointed that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit this week dodged a critical constitutional question: whether individuals have a First Amendment right to record on-duty police officers.EFF had filed an amicus brief in the case, Frasier v. Evans, asking the court to affirm... → Read More
EFF Tells California Supreme Court Not to Require ExamSoft for Bar Exam
This week, EFF sent a letter (pdf link) to the Supreme Court of California objecting to the required use of the proctoring tool ExamSoft for the October 2020 California Bar Exam. Test takers should not be forced to give their biometric data to ExamSoft, the letter says, which can use it for... → Read More
You Have a First Amendment Right to Record the Police
Like the rest of the world, we are horrified by the videos of George Floyd’s murder. Once again, police brutality was documented by brave bystanders exercising their First Amendment rights. Their videos forcefully tell a painful truth that has further fueled a movement to demand an end to racism... → Read More
Open Innovation in Medical Technology Will Save Lives
Experts from the world’s top engineering programs have come together to share knowledge about medical technology, hoping to make life-saving treatments more widely available. Importantly, they’re ensuring that patents, copyrights, and other legal restrictions don’t get between that knowledge and... → Read More
Ninth Circuit Goes a Step Further to Protect Privacy in Border Device Searches
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a new ruling in U.S. v. Cano [.pdf] that offers greater privacy protection for people crossing the border with their electronic devices, but it doesn’t go as far as we sought in our amicus brief.Cano had attempted to cross the border near San... → Read More
Seventh Circuit Dodges an Opportunity to Protect Travelers from Invasive Border Searches of Electronic Devices
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in United States v. Wanjiku missed an opportunity to protect travelers’ privacy rights and check the government’s ability to conduct invasive border searches of electronic devices.EFF, along with the ACLU, filed an amicus brief in the case arguing... → Read More
EFF to Tenth Circuit: First Amendment Protects Right to Record Police
The First Amendment protects the public’s right to use electronic devices to record on-duty police officers, EFF argued in an amicus brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The case, Frasier v. Evans, was brought by Levi Frasier against five Denver police officers for... → Read More
California Supreme Court Strengthens Section 230 Protections for Online Speech
Special thanks to legal intern Miranda Rutherford who was the lead author of this post.If someone sues you for a review you wrote on Yelp, can a court force Yelp to take down the review? This month, the California Supreme Court said “no” in the case Hassell v. Bird.This case concerned a dangerous... → Read More
Fourth Circuit Rules That Suspicionless Forensic Searches of Electronic Devices at the Border Are Unconstitutional
In a victory for privacy rights at the border, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit today ruled that forensic searches of electronic devices carried out by border agents without any suspicion that the traveler has committed a crime violate the U.S. Constitution.The ruling in U.S. v.... → Read More
State Dept. Wants to Expand Social Media Collection to All Visa Applicants
The State Department has alarmingly declared that it wants to collect social media information from all visa applicants. This appears to be an expansion of a 2017 program that sought social media information only from a subset of initially suspicious visa applicants. This is also the latest effort... → Read More
Eleventh Circuit Judge Endorses Warrant for Border Device Searches
A recent federal appeals court decision shows that at least one judge thinks border agents should get a warrant before conducting forensic searches of travelers’ cell phones. Although the majority of the three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in U.S. v.... → Read More
New CBP Border Device Search Policy Still Permits Unconstitutional Searches
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a new policy on border searches of electronic devices that's full of loopholes and vague language and that continues to allow agents to violate travelers’ constitutional rights. Although the new policy contains a few improvements over... → Read More
Appeals Court’s Disturbing Ruling Jeopardizes Protections for Anonymous Speakers
A federal appeals court has issued an alarming ruling that significantly erodes the Constitution’s protections for anonymous speakers—and simultaneously hands law enforcement a near unlimited power to unmask them. The Ninth Circuit’s decision in U.S. v. Glassdoor, Inc. is a significant... → Read More
Senator Thune's Bill Is Just As Bad As SESTA
In advance of a markup of the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (S. 1693) (“SESTA”), scheduled for November 8 in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Senator John Thune (R-SD) has floated a manger’s amendment [.pdf] that is intended to replace the current text of SESTA.... → Read More
DHS Should Stop the Social Media Surveillance of Immigrants
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last month issued a notice that it is storing social media information on immigrants, including lawful permanent residents and naturalized U.S. citizens, apparently indefinitely, in a government database that contains “Alien Files” (A-Files). This is... → Read More
Live Blog: Senate Commerce Committee Discusses SESTA
10:00 a.m.: In closing the hearing, Sen. Dan Sullivan speaks passionately about the need for the Department of Justice to invest more resources in prosecuting sex traffickers. Ms. Slater of the Internet Assocation echoes Sen. Sullivan, arguing that the Justice Department should have more resources... → Read More
Stop SESTA: Section 230 is Not Broken
EFF opposes the Senate’s Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act (S. 1693) (“SESTA”), and its House counterpart the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (H.R. 1865), because they would open up liability for Internet intermediaries—the ISPs, web hosting companies, websites, and... → Read More