Cindy Cohn
EFF
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Past articles by Cindy:
The Fediverse Could Be Awesome (if we don’t screw it up)
This post is part of a series on Mastodon and the fediverse. We also have a post on what the fediverse is, security and privacy on Mastodon, and more are on the way. You can follow EFF on Mastodon here.Something remarkable is happening. For the past two weeks, people have been leaving Twitter. Many... → Read More
Where’s EFF? Why EFF Is Sometimes Quiet About Important Cases and Issues
When legal issues light up the Internet, people turn to EFF for answers. Whether it’s attacks on coders' rights, overreaching copyright claims online, or governments' efforts to censor or spy on people, we are often among the first to hear about troubling events online, and we're frequently the... → Read More
Delays Aren't Good Enough—Apple Must Abandon Its Surveillance Plans
Apple announced today that it would “take additional time over the coming months to collect input and make improvements” to a program that will weaken privacy and security on iPhones and other products. EFF is pleased Apple is now listening to the concerns of customers, researchers, civil liberties... → Read More
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
Raid on COVID Whistleblower in Florida Shows the Need to Reform Overbroad Computer Crime Laws and the Risks of Over-Reliance on IP Addresses
The armed Florida State Trooper raid on Monday on the Tallahassee Florida home of data scientist and COVID whistleblower Rebekah Jones was shocking on many levels. This incident smacks of retaliation against someone working to provide the public with truthful information about the most pressing... → Read More
In an Uncertain World, EFF Will Always Support the Users
EFF turned thirty this year. In our three decades of work, we’ve seen huge shifts in the way technology and the Internet help, harm, and otherwise influence the lives of nearly everyone on the planet—and that includes its enormous influence on electoral politics. Our thirty-year view has allowed us... → Read More
EFF and COVID-19: Protecting Openness, Security, and Civil Liberties
EFF and its members work to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all the people of the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has made obvious how important the Internet and digital tools are to our lives and how vital it is that we maintain an open and secure approach to them... → Read More
2019 in Review | Electronic Frontier Foundation
In November’s landmark opinion in Alasaad v. McAleenan, a federal judge ruled that suspicionless electronic device searches at U.S. ports of entry violate the Fourth Amendment. The Alasaad opinion was the perfect way to end 2019—the culmination of two years of hard work by EFF, ACLU, and our... → Read More
Equifax Data Breach Update: Backsliding
After Equifax’s calamitous 2017 data breach, its settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the private attorneys representing victims appears to offer two potential remedies to all 147 million American consumers affected: free credit monitoring, or if individuals already had free... → Read More
EFF Statement on Assange Indictment and Arrest
While the indictment of Julian Assange centers on an alleged attempt to break a password—an attempt that was not apparently successful—it is still, at root, an attack on the publication of leaked material and the most recent act in an almost decade-long effort to punish a whistleblower and the... → Read More
National Emergencies: Constitutional and Statutory Restrictions on Presidential Powers
When a president threatens to exercise the power to declare a national emergency, our system of checks and balances faces a crucial test. With President Trump threatening such a declaration in order to build his proposed physical border wall, that test could be an important one that could... → Read More
An Update on Facebook’s Smear Campaign Against Critics
Back in late November, the New York Times revealed that Facebook had paid a corporate PR firm called Definers Public Affairs to develop and peddle a smear campaign aimed at some of its Open Society Foundations-funded critics, including members of the Freedom From Facebook coalition. In... → Read More
The Long Fight to Stop Mass Surveillance: 2018 in Review
EFF is in it for the long run, especially in the important, hard fights for your rights. One of the longest running fights in online civil liberties is over your right to have a private conversation over a digital network. Whether it’s for our intimate relationships, our healthcare, our... → Read More
Big Wins for Privacy and Free Speech: 2018 in Review
As 2018 draws to a close, we’ve gathered together some of EFF’s key legal wins this year. Some of these wins are only stops along the way to a larger goal, but each is hard fought, whether we’re serving as counsel or amicus curiae. Every one of these victories helped move the needle of law in the... → Read More
2018 in Review | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Your rights go with you when you go online. That’s the simple premise that has guided EFF’s work for 28 years. To make this premise real in 2018, we worked to ensure that law, corporate policies, and software are all hard-coded with the principles of free speech, privacy, and the right to innovate.... → Read More
What to do When Voting Machines Fail
With Election Day just hours away, we are seeing reports across the country that electronic voting machines are already inaccurately recording votes and questions are being raised about potential foreign interference after 2016. While the responsibility to deal with these issues falls to state... → Read More
Snowden Files Declaration in NSA Spying Case Confirming Authenticity of Draft Inspector General Report Discussing Unprecedented Surveillance of Americans, Which He Helped Expose
EFF filed papers with the court in its long-running Jewel v. NSA mass spying case today that included a surprising witness: Edward Snowden. Mr. Snowden’s short declaration confirms that a document relied upon in the case, a draft NSA Inspector General Report from 2009 discussing the mass... → Read More
“Information Fiduciaries” Must Protect Your Data Privacy
Legislators across the country are writing new laws to protect your data privacy. One tool in the toolbox could be “information fiduciary” rules. The basic idea is this: When you give your personal information to an online company in order to get a service, that company should have a duty to... → Read More
New Witness and New Experts Bolster Our Jewel Case As We Fight Government’s Latest Attempt to Derail Lawsuit Challenging Unconstitutional NSA Spying
EFF has presented its full evidentiary case that the five ordinary Americans who are plaintiffs in Jewel v. NSA were among the hundreds of millions of nonsuspect Americans whose communications and communications records have been touched by the government’s mass surveillance regimes. This... → Read More
Should Your Company Help ICE? “Know Your Customer” Standards for Evaluating Domestic Sales of Surveillance Equipment
Employees at Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have raised public concerns about those companies assisting U.S. military, law enforcement, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) in deploying various kinds of surveillance technologies. These public calls from employees raise important... → Read More