Neowin News Feed for: Eff

EFF slams Meta for killing Instagram encrypted chats and blaming users

Paul Hill — Wed, 13 May 2026 08:46:01 +0000

Meta is under fire for ending Instagram's encrypted messaging. The EFF argues that privacy should be a default right, not a buried setting users are blamed for ignoring. Read more...

EFF sounds the alarm on Chat Control, a regulation allowing scanning of private messages

Usama Jawad — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 20:16:01 +0000

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has criticized Europe's Chat Control regulation, which potentially allows governments to spy on phones. Read more...

The EFF's latest legal battle reveals a grim free speech fight

Paul Hill — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 06:42:01 +0000

The EFF has waded into a legal debate about whether AI outputs should be protected by the First Amendment which protects free speech. Its position may surprise you. Read more...

Wikipedia's privacy at risk under UK Online Safety Act, legal challenge to be heard

Paul Hill — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 05:02:01 +0000

Wikimedia, the organization behind Wikipedia, is going to challenge some of the provisions of the UK's Online Safety Act related to user verification. Read more...

EFF takes on DMCA provision criminalizing open speech, indirectly forwarding ‘Right to Repair'

Alap Naik Desai — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 05:18:01 +0000

The EFF is going after Section 1201 of the DMCA which currently criminalizes any attempts to speak about legally acquired copyrighted material. If repealed, it would boost Right to Repair movement. Read more...

GitHub restores youtube-dl repository after DMCA takedown

Paul Hill — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 20:16:02 +0000

GitHub has reinstated the youtube-dl repository after it received evidence from the Electronic Frontier Foundation showing that the project doesn't violate the DMCA as it was accused of doing. Read more...

EFF tells Twitter to encrypt DMs after hacking incident

Paul Hill — Sat, 18 Jul 2020 20:42:01 +0000

The EFF has said that the recent Twitter breach further highlights the need for direct messages to be end-to-end encrypted. The firm, two years ago, told Senator Wyden it would add the feature. Read more...

SaveDotOrg campaign succeeds as ICANN rejects .ORG sale

Paul Hill — Fri, 01 May 2020 12:38:01 +0000

ICANN has rejected the sale of PIR which runs .ORG to Ethos Capital. It comes after months of campaigning by non-profits who said the sale could lead to their financial exploitation. Read more...

EFF launches SaveDotOrg campaign as Public Interest Registry sale announced

Paul Hill — Sat, 23 Nov 2019 15:48:01 +0000

The EFF and several other entities have penned a letter to ISOC to cancel to the sale of PIR, which controls .ORG domains, to Ethos Capital. They believe it would negatively affect NGOs. Read more...

EFF's Privacy Badger stops Google's link tracking in latest update

Paul Hill — Fri, 05 Oct 2018 14:00:01 +0000

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has launched a new version of its Privacy Badger extension. The new update now stops Google from tracking links within Hangouts, Docs, and web searches. Read more...

EFF rolls out continual ruleset updates for HTTPS Everywhere

Boyd Chan — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 11:06:02 +0000

In a bid to distribute ruleset updates in a more timely manner for HTTPS Everywhere, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has now separated them out from updates to the browser extension itself. Read more...

Internet activist and founder of EFF John Barlow has passed away

Faheemmuddeen Patel — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 14:20:01 +0000

At the age of 70, founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation John Perry Barlow has passed away in his sleep. Barlow always advocated for an open internet and was a supporter of net neutrality. Read more...

Electronic Frontier Foundation resigns from the W3C over DRM policy

Paul Hill — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 08:58:01 +0000

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has decided it will leave the World Wide Web Consortium saying that the decision making process has been corrupted by corporate elements set on implementing DRM. Read more...

EFF makes big progress in latest Privacy Badger update

Paul Hill — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 08:48:01 +0000

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released a new update for its DNT enforcer, Privacy Badger. The release brings us a lot closer to seeing the add-on come to Firefox for Android, officially. Read more...

W3C approves a DRM standard for the web which has security researchers worried

Stergios Georgopoulos — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 01:28:01 +0000

The World Wide Web Consortium has approved Encrypted Media Extensions, a new internet DRM standard which has many people concerned, though all major browsers have been supporting it for years. Read more...

EFF sets out battle plans for digital rights during first 100 days of Trump's presidency

Vlad Dudau — Wed, 18 Jan 2017 13:12:01 +0000

Privacy, liberty, and accountability are not partisan issues, said the Electronic Frontier Foundation, as it set out its agenda to defend digital rights for the first 100 days of Trump's reign. Read more...

European Court backs demand by copyright holders to require passwords for open Wi-Fi hotspots

Paul Hill — Tue, 27 Sep 2016 20:34:01 +0000

The European Court of Justice has set a precedent by ordering a public Wi-Fi provider to restrict access by requiring guest users to register with a password to prevent copyright infringement. Read more...

Microsoft gains powerful allies in fight against US gagging orders

Paul Hill — Mon, 05 Sep 2016 07:26:01 +0000

Microsoft sued the US Department of Justice back in April over gagging orders. Now several big players including Apple, Mozilla and the EFF have come out in support of the software company. Read more...

The EFF calls out Microsoft for disregarding user choice and privacy in Windows 10

Rich Woods — Wed, 17 Aug 2016 21:08:01 +0000

The Electronic Frontier Foundation called out Microsoft today for disregarding user choice and privacy in Windows 10. The organization calls out Microsoft's aggressive upgrade tactics, and telemetry. Read more...

Wikileaks source Chelsea Manning allowed to read EFF news after initial ban

Paul Hill — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 11:36:01 +0000

Chelsea Manning has been allowed to receive Internet articles which the US Army had previously banned her from receiving. The EFF is still concerned about restrictions on internet content inmates get. Read more...

T-Mobile violating FCC Net Neutrality rules, calls it "Optimization"

Christopher White — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 07:26:01 +0000

The EFF has done some research and determined that T-Mobile is throttling video traffic with their "Binge On" service in direct opposition to the United States' Net Neutrality rules passed in 2015. Read more...

Small ISP wins 11-year old case against the FBI over national security letters

Chris Dupres — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 14:16:01 +0000

Even though his ISP has closed its doors, Nicholas Merrill never stopped fighting his NSL gag order, and has defeated the FBI in federal court after 11 long years Read more...

Spying on citizens: It's not just for the NSA anymore

Christopher White — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 20:30:01 +0000

If you thought the NSA was the only government agency spying on U.S. citizens, this news will be disheartening to you: The Department of Justice kept all of your phone records until the end of 2013. Read more...

EFF and Amnesty International back anti-spying software

Vlad Dudau — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 13:04:01 +0000

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Amnesty International are just two of the big backers behind Detekt, an open-source software program that detects spyware commonly used by governments. Read more...

EFF introduces the "Secure Messaging Scorecard" project

Steven Johns — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 12:00:01 +0000

In an effort to encourage companies to become more transparent and secure, the EFF has begun a "Secure Messaging Scoreboard" listing dozens of apps and their security features, or lack thereof. Read more...

Tech giants join Microsoft's call for US to end requests for overseas data

Steven Johns — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 08:28:11 +0000

Multiple tech giants, including Apple, Verizon and Cisco, have joined Microsoft in opposing the US government's requests for search warrants for data stored on overseas servers. Read more...

EFF online privacy report names Snapchat and Amazon amongst worst offenders

James Walker — Mon, 19 May 2014 12:32:50 +0000

In the fourth 'Who Has Your Back' report into the privacy standards of companies online, Snapchat, AT&T & Amazon have been named as failing to provide adequate privacy protection for their customers. Read more...

EFF uses a Badger to protect your privacy

Christopher White — Mon, 05 May 2014 02:31:59 +0000

The Electronic Frontier Foundation created an extension for Firefox and Chrome called Privacy Badger that looks for advertisers who ignore "Do Not Track" requests and throws them into a black hole. Read more...

Electronic Frontier Foundation slams Microsoft for searching a blogger's Hotmail

John Callaham — Sat, 22 Mar 2014 22:43:00 +0000

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has come out against Microsoft's statements concerning the recent search through a person's Hotmail account, stating the company should have gotten a warrant first. Read more...

Internet sets February 11th as day of protest against mass surveilance

Vlad Dudau — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 18:11:28 +0000

The internet has banded together to fight against mass surveillance. February 11th will be an international day of protest with banners and widgets strewn across popular websites such as Reddit. Read more...

Judge orders the FBI to come clean on internet surveillance

Tyler Holman — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 00:43:13 +0000

A US District Judge has ordered the FBI to come clean on their efforts to access encrypted information and force manufacturers to build backdoors into their products, following a lawsuit from the EFF. Read more...

US Government: All your cloud data are belong to us

Tyler Holman — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 06:41:45 +0000

Kim Dotcom might be gearing up to launch his new venture, but the EFF's fight for Megaupload users' data is far from over, and now the government is saying that they don't really own their cloud data. Read more...

HTTPS Everywhere 3.0 protects users on-line

Alfonso Maruccia — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 18:33:30 +0000

The “encryption-enabler” browser add-on made by the EFF collective gets a new update, adding up many web sites to its protection list and promising a safer World Wide Web for everyone. Read more...

Megaupload data might be released to owners

Andrew Stevenson — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 08:23:59 +0000

For users who lost access to files at the time of Megaupload's shutdown, there may yet be some hope that they can retrieve their data from the petabytes of data still available to the server's hosts. Read more...

eBook publishers are spying on us

Christopher White — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 23:02:02 +0000

Although eBooks are convenient, they add another trail of electronic crumbs that give more data to publishers and retailers. Should there be restrictions on this data or is the convenience worth it? Read more...

HTTPS Everywhere 2.0 warns about websites security holes

Alfonso Maruccia — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 02:30:12 +0000

The new release of the EFF-crafted Firefox security extension brings a very much welcomed additional feature, ie warning users when a website is affected by security holes. Read more...

Microsoft's Xbox 360 memory card lawsuit disputed by EFF

John Callaham — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:01:39 +0000

Microsoft's recent lawsuit against a third party maker of Xbox 360 memory cards is being disputed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Gamasutra reports that in a brief written last week, the EFF stated that Microsoft's... Read more...

So called “smart” electricity meters are spying on you

Christopher White — Thu, 12 May 2011 07:52:29 +0000

It’s a common trend, but everything is spying on you nowadays. We’re not talking about men in black suits and sunglasses following you around the city, but instead we’re referring to the pervasive passive monitoring... Read more...

Appeals court rules that email is protected by the 4th Amendment

Brandon Boyce — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 03:25:12 +0000

In the case of Warshak v United States an appeals court has ruled that government entities must first obtain a search warrant before they are allowed to seize and search your email. This gives email... Read more...

TI sends a cease and desist letter to calculator hackers

Sam Alderwick — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:07:30 +0000

Calculator hobbyists who blogged about the modification of the software included on Texas Instruments (TI) programmable calculators have been sent letters from TI demanding they remove the material. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), who campaign... Read more...