Gennie Gebhart
EFF
San Francisco, CA, United States
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Past articles by Gennie:
A Promising New GDPR Ruling Against Targeted Ads
Targeted advertising’s days may be numbered. The Wall Street Journal and Reuters report that the European Data Protection Board has ruled that Meta cannot continue targeting ads based on user’s online activity without affirmative, opt-in consent. This ruling is based on the European Union’s General... → Read More
Bad Data “For Good”: How Data Brokers Try to Hide in Academic Research
When data broker SafeGraph got caught selling location information on Planned Parenthood visitors, it had a public relations trick up its sleeve. After the company agreed to remove family planning center data from its platforms in response to public outcry, CEO Auren Hoffman tried to flip the... → Read More
Should You Really Delete Your Period Tracking App?
Since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision depriving people of the right to abortion leaked last month, some have advised deleting period tracking apps to prevent that data from being used to target people seeking abortion care. But it’s useful to distinguish between the security and privacy threats that abortion seekers are actively experiencing now versus threats that may come in the future. → Read More
Twitter Has a New Owner. Here’s What He Should Do.
Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter highlights the risks to human rights and personal safety when any single person has complete control over policies affecting almost 400 million users. And in this case, that person has repeatedly demonstrated that they do not understand the realities of platform policy at scale. → Read More
What’s Up with WhatsApp Encrypted Backups
WhatsApp is rolling out an option for users to encrypt their message backups, and that is a big win for user privacy and security. The new feature is expected to be available for both iOS and Android “in the coming weeks.” EFF has pointed out unencrypted backups as a huge weakness for WhatsApp and... → Read More
VICTORY: You Can Now Make Your Venmo Friends List Private. Here’s How.
It took two and a half years and one national security incident, but Venmo did it, folks: users now have privacy settings to hide their friends lists.EFF first pointed out the problem with Venmo friends lists in early 2019 with our "Fix It Already" campaign. While Venmo offered a setting to make... → Read More
Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency is Upending Mobile Phone Tracking
Apple’s long-awaited privacy update for iOS is out, and it’s a solid step in the right direction. With the launch of iOS 14.5, hundreds of millions of iPhone users will now interact with Apple’s new AppTrackingTransparency feature. Allowing users to choose what third-party tracking they will or will not tolerate, and forcing apps to request those permissions, gives users more → Read More
After This Week’s Hack, It Is Past Time for Twitter to End-to-End Encrypt Direct Messages
Earlier this week, chaos reigned supreme on Twitter as high-profile public figures—from Elon Musk to Jeff Bezos to President Barack Obama—started tweeting links to the same bitcoin scam.Twitter’s public statement and reporting from Motherboard suggest attackers gained access to an internal admin... → Read More
COVID-19 and Technology: Commonly Used Terms
New technical proposals to track, contain, and fight COVID-19 are coming out nearly every day, and the distinction between public health strategies, technical approaches, and other terms can be confusing. On this page we attempt to define and disambiguate some of the most commonly used terms.... → Read More
Apple and Google’s COVID-19 Exposure Notification API: Questions and Answers
Apple and Google are undertaking an unprecedented team effort to build a system for Androids and iPhones to interoperate in the name of technology-assisted COVID-19 contact tracing.The companies’ plan is part of a torrent of proposals to use Bluetooth signal strength to enhance manual contact... → Read More
Harden Your Zoom Settings to Protect Your Privacy and Avoid Trolls
Whether you are on Zoom because your employer or school requires it or you just downloaded it to stay in touch with friends and family, people have rushed to the video chat platform in the wake of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders—and journalists, researchers, and regulators have noticed its many... → Read More
Verily's COVID-19 Screening Website Leaves Privacy Questions Unanswered
One week after Alphabet’s Verily launched its COVID-19 screening website, several unanswered questions remain about how exactly the project will collect, use, and retain people’s medical information.Verily, a healthcare data subsidiary of Google's parent company Alphabet, has until now operated its... → Read More
How To Protect Your Phone Number On Twitter
The bad news is that Twitter has disclosed a failure to protect users' phone numbers, again. The good news is that Twitter users can take steps to protect themselves.Earlier this week, Twitter announced it had discovered and shut down “a large network of fake accounts” that were uploading large... → Read More
How Twitter's Default Settings Can Leak Your Phone Number
Twitter has publicly disclosed a security “incident” that points to long-standing problems with how the service handles phone numbers. Twitter announced it had discovered and shut down “a large network of fake accounts” that were uploading large numbers of phone numbers and using tools in Twitter’s... → Read More
Off-Facebook Activity is a Welcome but Incomplete Move
Today Facebook announced the roll-out of its Off-Facebook Activity tool (initially introduced as “Clear History” nearly two years ago). The tools shows you a list of apps, websites, and businesses that Facebook knows you have visited through its business tools (including Facebook Login, Facebook’s... → Read More
How to Change Your Off-Facebook Activity Settings
Facebook's long-awaited Off-Facebook Activity tool started rolling out today. While it's not a perfect measure, and we still need stronger data privacy laws, this tool is a good step toward greater transparency and user control regarding third-party tracking. We hope other companies... → Read More
Behind the One-Way Mirror: A Deep Dive Into the Technology of Corporate Surveillance
It's time to shed light on the technical methods and business practices behind third-party tracking. For journalists, policy makers, and concerned consumers, this paper will demystify the fundamentals of third-party tracking, explain the scope of the problem, and suggest ways for users and legislation to fight back against the status quo. → Read More
Three Political Ad Policies and No Good Answers
Observations of election manipulation on social media, and fears about how it could get worse in future elections, are prompting several platforms to take action. Twitter’s new political ads policy goes into effect today, just days after Google announced changes to its own ads policy and in the... → Read More
What Reporters Should Look For in Latest Facebook Document Leak
NBC’s latest release of 7,000 pages of leaked internal Facebook documents has revealed how Facebook treated user data as leverage with external developers and spun anti-competitive moves as privacy improvements. As members of the press and civil society continue to inspect this massive volume of... → Read More
Publishers Should be Making E-Book Licensing Better, Not Worse
Macmillan, one of the “Big Five” publishers, is imposing new limits on libraries’ access to ebooks—and libraries and their users are fighting back.Starting last week, the publisher is imposing a two-month embargo period on library ebooks. When Macmillan releases a new book, library systems will be... → Read More