Press Releases: October 2014
Court Should Rule That Mass Telephone Records Collection Is Unconstitutional in Klayman v. Obama
Washington, D.C. - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will appear before a federal appeals court next week to argue the National Security Agency (NSA) should be barred from its mass collection of telephone records of million of Americans. The hearing in Klayman v. Obama is set for 9:30 am on Tuesday, Nov. 4 in Washington, D.C.
Appearing as an amicus, EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn will present oral argument at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on behalf of EFF and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which submitted a joint brief in the case.
Conservative activist and lawyer Larry Klayman filed the suit in the aftermath of the first Edward Snowden disclosure, in which The Guardian revealed how the NSA was collecting telephone records on a massive scale from the telecommunications company Verizon. In December, District Court Judge Richard Leon issued a preliminary injunction in the case, declaring that the mass surveillance program was likely unconstitutional.
EFF argues that the call-records collection, which the NSA conducts with claimed authority under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, violates the Fourth Amendment rights of millions of Americans. Separately, EFF is counsel in two other lawsuits against the program—Jewel v. NSA and First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. NSA—and is co-counsel with the ACLU in a third, Smith v. Obama.
What: Oral Argument in Klayman v. Obama
Who: EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn
When: 9:30 am (ET), Nov. 4, 2014
Where: E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse and William B. Bryant Annex
Courtroom 20
333 Constitution Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
For background and legal documents:
https://www.eff.org/cases/klayman-v-obama
The audio of the oral arguments is expected to be available on the court's website sometime after the hearing: https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/recordings/recordings.nsf/
Contact:
Dave Maass
Media Relations Coordinator
Electronic Frontier Foundation
press@eff.org
Wordpress, NameCheap Receive Five Stars in New EFF Scorecard
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today released a new report and scorecard that shows what online service providers are doing to protect users from baseless copyright and trademark complaints.
"Who Has Your Back: When Copyright and Trademark Bullies Threaten Free Speech" [PDF] examines how online service providers handle copyright and trademark-based takedown requests. The report expands upon EFF's influential "Who Has Your Back" annual report covering how online service providers protect users' data from government requests.
"When a private citizen or corporation wants to silence speech on a major online platform, the quickest method is often a copyright or trademark complaint," EFF Director of Copyright Activism Parker Higgins said. "EFF has worked for many years to help people whose speech is unfairly targeted by these sorts of complaints, and we've seen how important it is that speech platforms have policies that help protect lawful users."
Click to EnlargeEFF examined 13 companies and issued stars if they met the baseline standards for what a service can do to defend its users' speech against copyright and trademark bullies. The services could receive a maximum of five stars, based on criteria including publicly documented procedures for responses to DMCA takedown notices and counter-notices, how the services handle trademark disputes, and if the company issued detailed transparency reports.
Automattic's Wordpress.com and NameCheap were the only two companies to receive five out of five stars. However, two other companies were recognized for going the extra mile: Etsy, for providing educational guides, and Twitter, for publishing regular and thorough transparency reports. Overall, 10 companies did not publish adequate transparency reports, highlighting an information black hole for consumers. Additionally, four companies missed a star for their counter-notice practices—a critical procedure for restoring content that may have been taken down without cause.
"Major online platforms are essential to online expression, so their policy decisions can have a huge impact on public discourse," EFF Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry said. "As users choose which platforms will host their updates, writing, images, and videos, they ought to know which of these services have publicly committed to treating their speech fairly and even helping them fight back against bullies that would try to take it down."
For the report:
https://www.eff.org/pages/who-has-your-back-copyright-trademark-2014
For the shareable infographic:
https://www.eff.org/files/who-has-your-back-copyright-trademark-header.png
Contact:
Parker Higgins
Director of Copyright Activism
Electronic Frontier Foundation
parker@eff.org
EFF Releases Updated Guide to Privacy and Security for Internet Users Worldwide
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) launched its updated "Surveillance Self-Defense" report today, a comprehensive how-to guide to protecting yourself from electronic spying for Internet users all over the world.
"Everyone has something to protect, whether its from the government or stalkers or data-miners," said EFF International Director Danny O'Brien. "Surveillance Self-Defense will help you think through your personal risk factors and concerns—is it an authoritarian government you need to worry about, or an ex-spouse, or your employer?—and guide you to appropriate tools and practices based on your specific situation."
Surveillance Self-Defense includes briefings on important security issues, tutorials on using specific privacy software like PGP and OTR, and guides for specific categories of users, like human rights activists or journalism students. People who are just beginning to upgrade their communications privacy can choose the "Security Starter Pack."
"The Internet and other electronic communications have empowered people all over the globe to speak out and make connections in world-changing ways," said EFF Director for International Freedom of Expression Jillian York. "But this has also opened new opportunities for tracking and exposure. Surveillance Self-Defense will teach you to think critically about your Internet use and make good choices even as the technology changes around you."
Surveillance Self-Defense was first launched in 2009, aimed at educating Americans about the law and technology of communications surveillance. The new report expands, revises, and updates the old guide for use across the globe with support from the Ford Foundation. EFF spoke and worked with experts and activists from across the world, from MIT to the Middle East, in developing the guide. The entire Surveillance Self-Defense project is available in English, Spanish, and Arabic, with more languages available soon.
For the Surveillance Self-Defense guide:
https://ssd.eff.org
Contacts:
Eva Galperin
International Freedom of Expression Coordinator
Electronic Frontier Foundation
eva@eff.org
Danny O'Brien
International Outreach Coordinator
Electronic Frontier Foundation
danny@eff.org
Katitza Rodriguez
International Rights Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
katitza@eff.org.
Jillian York
Director for International Freedom of Expression
Electronic Frontier Foundation
jillian@eff.org
Privacy, Economic and Free Speech Flaws in Proposed Bitcoin Regulatory Scheme
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), along with reddit and the Internet Archive, today filed formal comments with the New York State Department of Financial Services opposing the state's proposed regulations for digital currencies such as Bitcoin. In the letter, EFF argues that on top of damaging privacy and harming innovation, New York's "BitLicense" regulatory scheme also risks infringing on First Amendment rights to freedom of expression and association.
The State of New York is currently considering BitLicense, a sprawling regulatory framework that would mandate licenses for a wide range of companies in the digital currency space. The regulations would force applicants to submit significant personal information to the state, including fingerprints and head-shot photographs. The policy would also require these companies to maintain detailed records about all transactions for 10 years, including identity data of users.
"Digital currencies such as Bitcoin strengthen privacy and are resistant to censorship," EFF Activism Director Rainey Reitman said. "We should consider this a feature, not a bug; it's an innovative way of importing some of the civil liberties protections we already enjoy offline into the digital world."
EFF notes that digital currency protocols are used for more than just payments—they have expressive and associational uses, too. Bitcoin-like systems are used for organizing and engaging with groups or communities. In addition, Bitcoin block chains frequently contain political speech, such as famous quotes and portraits of prominent historical figures. As currently written, EFF argues, the BitLicense regulations place an unacceptable burden on free speech and association.
"The courts have long recognized that code is speech protected by the First Amendment," EFF Special Counsel Marcia Hofmann said. "At their core, digital currency protocols are code. Attempts to regulate code must include robust protections to ensure constitutionally protected speech is not stifled, and the BitLicense proposal would undermine those First Amendment principles."
On Oct. 15, EFF launched an online activism campaign encouraging Internet users to oppose the BitLicense proposal by submitting comments to the New York State Department of Financial Services.
For the text of EFF's comments:
https://www.eff.org/document/bitlicense-comments-eff-internet-archive-and-reddit
For EFF's activism campaign:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/10/beware-bitlicense-new-yorks-virtual-currency-regulations-invade-privacy-and-hamper
Contact:
Rainey Reitman
Activism Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
rainey@eff.org
Sites Highlight How Opponents of Mass Surveillance Around the World Lead by Example
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today launched IFightSurveillance.org, a new site showcasing digital privacy advocates from around the world who are leading the fight against mass surveillance. The site includes figures from the organization's growing list of Counter-Surveillance Success Stories, a set of guides showing how individuals and organizations have taken on state and corporate spying in their own countries—and won.
Translated into 16 languages, IFightSurveillance.org highlights images and quotes from activists, business leaders, lawyers, and technologists. Examples include:
- Vladan Sobjer, whose organization, SHARE Defense, helps Serbians learn about encryption.
- Ron Deibert, whose group, the Citizen Lab, analyzes malware and digital threats to vulnerable groups from Bahrain to Iran.
- Anne Roth, whose own unjust surveillance by German law enforcement led her to work for better protections for her fellow citizens.
"Too often, the debate over surveillance is seen as a 'domestic' issue, only of concern to citizens of the country doing the spying," EFF International Director Danny O'Brien said. "The truth is that mass surveillance isn't confined to national borders, and neither is the response to it. Technologists, activists, and Internet users are all working to fight back against mass surveillance. Wherever you are, whoever you are, there are people close to you working to stop the spying, and you can join them."
The site provides five concrete steps activists can take, including using encryption software to protect themselves, supporting a decentralized Internet, and signing onto the 13 "Necessary and Proportionate Principles," a global framework to protect human rights in an age of mass surveillance. Visitors are encouraged to use the site's social media tools to share their stories of standing up for privacy and to learn about the more than 400 privacy rights organization that have endorsed the 13 principles.
IFightSurveillance.org's companion site, Counter-Surveillance Success Stories (https://www.eff.org/csss), delves into greater detail about the work of the global coalition, spotlighting battles for privacy in Zimbabwe as well as countries across North America and Europe.
Links:
I Fight Surveillance: https://ifightsurveillance.org
Counter-Surveillance Success Stories: https://www.eff.org/csss
Contact:
Danny O'Brien
International Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
danny@eff.org
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to Stream October 8 Hearing on Key Patriot Act Tool
Update: The court announced early Wednesday that it will not livestream the audio of the NSL case. Audio available here https://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/view.php?pk_id=0000013407.
San Francisco, CA - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will urge a federal appeals court next week to uphold a groundbreaking ruling that the National Security Letter (NSL) provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional. The hearing is set for 9 a.m. on October 8 in San Francisco.
Months before Edward Snowden kicked off the international debate over electronic surveillance, EFF scored a major victory when a federal judge ordered the FBI to cease its practice of issuing NSLs—demands to telecommunication providers to provide information about their users that are not approved in advance by a judge.
The lower court found that the gag orders, which are almost always issued by the FBI in tandem with the NSLs, violate the First Amendment. In EFF's cases, these gag orders have forced EFF's clients to keep their identities hidden, preventing them from discussing the NSLs publicly or even revealing their involvement in this case. The court also found that the limited, after-the-fact judicial review procedures violate the separation of powers.
EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl will deliver oral arguments at the hearing at the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Audio of the arguments will be live streamed through the court's website. The identity of the clients will not be disclosed in Wednesday's hearing.
What: Oral Arguments in Under Seal v. Eric Holder, Jr. (consolidated cases)
Who: EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl
When: 9 a.m. PT, Oct. 8, 2014
Where: James R. Browning Courthouse, Courtroom 4
95 7th Street
San Francisco, CA
Opsahl will be available for interviews at the courthouse immediately after the hearing.
Applications to bring a camera into the courtroom must be submitted by the close of business on Friday, Oct. 3. Details at: https://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/news_media/
Live oral arguments will be streamed at:
https://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/view_video.php?pk_vid=0000006581
For EFF's briefs:
https://www.eff.org/files/2014/03/27/nsl.13-15957.13-16731.secondoffourbriefs.redacted.0320141.pdf
https://www.eff.org/files/2014/07/08/casesqw.reply_.brief_.redacted.pdf
For more on NSLs, visit our NSL Frequently Asked Questions page:
https://www.eff.org/issues/national-security-letters/faq
eff.org/nsa-spying
