Adam Schwartz
EFF
California, United States
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Past articles by Adam:
EFF to California Governor: Protect Abortion Data Privacy
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, anti-choice sheriffs and bounty hunters will try to investigate and punish abortion seekers based on their internet browsing, private messaging, and phone app location data. Legislators must act now to protect this personal data. Reproductive... → Read More
Americans Deserve More Than The Current American Data Privacy Protection Act
EFF has initial objections to the latest draft of the American Data Privacy Protection Act, or the ADPPA (H.R. 8152), passed this week. Before a floor vote, we urge the House to fix the bill and use this historic opportunity to strengthen—not diminish—the country's privacy landscape now and for years to come. → Read More
EFF Urges Congress to Strengthen the American Data Privacy and Protection Act
EFF has long been in the business of searching for ways to guarantee digital privacy. That made essential that, ahead of a hearing titled “Protecting America's Consumers: Bipartisan Legislation to Strengthen Data Privacy and Security,” we send a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee on... → Read More
The Movement to Ban Government Use of Face Recognition
In the hands of police and other government agencies, face recognition technology presents an inherent threat to our privacy, free expression, information security, and social justice. Our faces are unique identifiers that can’t be left at home, or replaced like a stolen ID or compromised password... → Read More
Stop Forced Arbitration in Data Privacy Legislation
People who want their day in court should be able to have it. That's why EFF has long opposed forced arbitration agreements—agreements that require people to resolve conflicts without going to court—because they place unfair limits on one’s ability to exercise their fundamental rights. Too often,... → Read More
Ban Online Behavioral Advertising
Tech companies earn staggering profits by targeting ads to us based on our online behavior. This incentivizes all online actors to collect as much of our behavioral information as possible, and then sell it to ad tech companies and the data brokers that service them. This pervasive online... → Read More
Resisting the Menace of Face Recognition
Face recognition technology is a special menace to privacy, racial justice, free expression, and information security. Our faces are unique identifiers, and most of us expose them everywhere we go. And unlike our passwords and identification numbers, we can’t get a new face. So, governments and... → Read More
Face Recognition Technology: Commonly Used Terms
As face recognition technology evolves at a dizzying speed, new uses and terminologies seem to develop daily. On this page, we attempt to define and disambiguate some of the most commonly used terms. For more information on government use of face recognition and how to end it in your community,... → Read More
Chicago Inspector General: Using ShotSpotter Does Not Justify Crime Fighting Utility
ˀThe Chicago Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has released a highly critical report on the Chicago Police Department’s use of ShotSpotter, a surveillance technology that relies on a combination of artificial intelligence and human “acoustic experts” to purportedly identify and locate gunshots... → Read More
DHS’s Flawed Plan for Mobile Driver’s Licenses
Digital identification can invade our privacy and aggravate existing social inequities. Designed wrong, it might be a big step towards national identification, in which every time we walk through a door or buy coffee, a record of the event is collected and aggregated. Also, any system that... → Read More
Decoding California's New Digital Vaccine Records and Potential Dangers
The State of California recently released what it calls a “Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record.” It is part of that state’s recent easing of public health rules on masking within businesses. California’s new Record is a QR code that contains the same information as is on our paper vaccine cards,... → Read More
A Year of Action in Support of the Black-Led Movement Against Police Violence and Racism
“Black lives matter on the streets. Black lives matter on the internet.” A year ago, EFF’s Executive Director, Cindy Cohn, shared these words in EFF's statement about the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. Cindy spoke for all of us in committing EFF to redouble its efforts to... → Read More
Community Control of Police Spy Tech
All too often, police and other government agencies unleash invasive surveillance technologies on the streets of our communities, based on the unilateral and secret decisions of agency executives, after hearing from no one except corporate sales agents. This spy tech causes false arrests,... → Read More
No Digital Vaccine Bouncers
The U.S. is distributing more vaccines and the population is gradually becoming vaccinated. Returning to regular means of activity and movement has become the main focus for many Americans who want to travel or see family. An increasingly common proposal to get there is digital proof-of-vaccination... → 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
Dystopia Prime: Amazon Subjects Its Drivers to Biometric Surveillance
Some high-tech surveillance is so dangerous to privacy that companies must never deploy it against a person without their voluntary opt-in consent. It comes as little surprise that Amazon, the company that brought you Ring doorbell cameras and Rekognition face surveillance, has a tenuous... → Read More
Why EFF Doesn’t Support Bans On Private Use of Face Recognition
Government and private use of face recognition technology each present a wealth of concerns. Privacy, safety, and amplification of carceral bias are just some of the reasons why we must ban government use.But what about private use? It also can exacerbate injustice, including its use by police... → Read More
Pass the Payment Choice Act
A growing number of retail businesses are refusing to let their customers pay in cash. This is bad for privacy. Higher-tech payment methods, like credit cards and online payment systems, often create an indelible record of what we bought, and at what time and place. How can you stop data thieves,... → Read More
No to Blockchain Credentials of COVID-19 Test Results for Entry to Public Spaces
An ill-conceived California bill endorses a blockchain-based system that would turn COVID-19 test results into permanent records that could be used to grant access to public places.EFF and ACLU oppose California A.B. 2004. The newest version of this bill would create a pilot program for using “... → Read More
Why EFF Doesn’t Support California Proposition 24
This November, Californians will be called upon to vote on a ballot initiative called the California Privacy Rights Act, or Proposition 24. EFF does not support it; nor does EFF oppose it.EFF works across the country to enact and defend laws that empower technology users to control how businesses... → Read More