Category Archives: electronic frontier foundation

The Global Surveillance Free-for-All in Mobile Ad Data

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Not long ago, the ability to remotely track someone’s daily movements just by knowing their home address, employer, or place of worship was considered a powerful surveillance tool that should only be in the purview of nation states. But a new lawsuit in a likely constitutional battle over a New Jersey privacy law shows that anyone can now access this capability, thanks to a proliferation of commercial services that hoover up the digital exhaust emitted by widely-used mobile apps and websites. Continue reading The Global Surveillance Free-for-All in Mobile Ad Data→

US, UK law enforcement to implement data sharing law, troubling privacy advocates

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Other countries seeking data sharing agreements similar to the one with the U.K. include Turkey, Japan, India and most of Europe.

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Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade reversal sparks calls for strengthening privacy

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Data collected by tech companies could be used to prosecute abortion seekers, they warn.

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U.S. marshal used controversial cell phone location service to illegally access data, DOJ says

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Prosecutors say Adrian Pena used Securus.

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Missouri Governor Vows to Prosecute St. Louis Post-Dispatch for Reporting Security Vulnerability

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On Wednesday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a story about how its staff discovered and reported a security vulnerability in a Missouri state education website that exposed the Social Security numbers of 100,000 elementary and secondary teachers. In a press conference this morning, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) said fixing the flaw could cost the state $50 million, and vowed his administration would seek to prosecute and investigate the “hackers” and anyone who aided the publication in its “attempt to embarrass the state and sell headlines for their news outlet.” Continue reading Missouri Governor Vows to Prosecute St. Louis Post-Dispatch for Reporting Security Vulnerability→

Amazon’s Sidewalk, a neighborhood device network, is ‘uncharted territory’ for data privacy, watchdogs say

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A new Amazon feature aimed at keeping users’ home devices connected to the internet by using a friendly slice of neighborhood broadband is already raising concerns about unintended privacy consequences. Amazon’s Sidewalk network pulls slivers of broadband from its users to create a larger network to extend the range for devices further from a users’ home, such as the tracking device Tile or smart lighting at the edge of a users’ property. Benefits of such technology include helping a user find a lost dog or car keys, Amazon touts. It could also keep devices online if the internet of an individual user goes out. Concerns about the expansion of existing home devices’ reach draws on lingering anxieties about internet-connected home devices. Amazon, Google, and other major home security devices have all suffered significant hacks in recent years, while some have collected an alarming amount of users’ private data. Ring’s doorbell […]

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Rights groups ask Supreme Court to review warrantless searches at border

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Civil liberties groups on Friday asked the Supreme Court to hear a case challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s warrantless searches of travelers’ electronic devices at U.S. ports of entry and airports. The petition from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and American Civil Liberties Union asks the Supreme Court to overturn a U.S. appeals court’s decision in February that authorizes border agents to search devices without a warrant. The EFF and ACLU sued DHS in 2017 on behalf of 11 U.S. citizens who contended border officers violated their rights when they searched their devices as they re-entered the U.S.   The issue has long been a concern for privacy-minded groups and press advocates. The Committee to Protect Journalists, which does advocacy around the world, warned in 2018 that journalists traveling to the U.S. “should be aware that current practice risks exposing contacts, sourcing and reporting material contained on laptops, phones and […]

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Warrantless searches of devices at border allowed, appeals court finds

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled earlier this week that Customs and Border Protection agents may conduct warrantless searches of cellphones and electronic devices at the U.S. border, in a ruling that is already raising privacy questions among digital rights advocates. The decision, issued by a panel of judges and authored by Judge Sandra Lynch, states that the government’s interest in searching persons at the border is “at its zenith,” therefore trumping privacy concerns. “Electronic device searches do not fit neatly into other categories of property searches, but the bottom line is that basic border searches of electronic devices do not involve an intrusive search of a person,” Lynch writes. The decision is at odds with an earlier district court finding that these kinds of searches violate the Fourth Amendment because there’s no assurance there is a “reasonable suspicion” that the devices in question contained digital […]

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Signal is having ‘technical difficulties’ amid new popularity

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2021 has so far been a chaotic year, and now Signal is bearing the brunt of it. Signal users around the world began reporting issues sending messages in the mobile application Friday morning. Some users, including the author of this article, found messages took much longer to send than normal, or received a notice that the service was “unavailable” when trying to send messages. Some users told CyberScoop they were having issues as early as Thursday. Signal acknowledged in a statement the application is having “technical difficulties”, but did not offer an explanation. “We are working hard to restore service as quickly as possible,” Signal said in a tweet. Signal did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the technical difficulties and their origin. The issues emerged days after Signal reported a sudden uptick in new users following the storming of the Capitol earlier this month. Signal was downloaded […]

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Tech Giants Lend WhatsApp Support in Spyware Case Against NSO Group

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Google, Microsoft, Cisco Systems and others want appeals court to deny immunity to Israeli company for its alleged distribution of spyware and illegal cyber-surveillance activities. Continue reading Tech Giants Lend WhatsApp Support in Spyware Case Against NSO Group→